M&A Fuels Fundraising

   (FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 5/18/15) 
   By Stephen Grocer 

Companies are turning to the capital markets at a record pace to fund acquisitions.

So far this year, buyers have raised $159 billion in debt and $47.3 billion in equity to fund purchases, according to Dealogic. Both are highs for the first 4 1/2 months of the year and easily exceed previous records: $112 billion of debt in 2009 and $35 billion of equity in 2007.

Health-care deal making has driven much of the surge in M&A financing. So far this year, Actavis PLC sold $21 billion of corporate bonds to fund its purchase of Allergan Inc.; AbbVie Inc. raised $16.7 billion through a bond sale to support its pending acquisition of Pharmacyclics Inc.; and Merck & Co. sold $8 billion of bonds for its purchase of Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Overall, the sector has announced $244.3 billion in mergers and acquisitions this year and has raised $78.3 billion in debt and $12.9 billion in equity to fund those deals, according to Dealogic. Both are record amounts for the sector through the first 4 1/2 months of the year.

Acquirers have announced $1.47 trillion in deals world-wide in 2015, a 30% increase from the same period last year and the highest total since 2007.

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