CMS advises the Wellcome Trust on its £750 million 100-year bond

CMS advises the Wellcome Trust on its £750 million 100-year bond

London, 31 January 2018. International law firm CMS has advised the Wellcome Trust, the UK’s largest charitable foundation and one of the world’s largest funders of medical research, on its issue of £750 million Bonds due 2118 (the “Bonds”). The issue of the Bonds launched and priced today.

J.P. Morgan acted as lead manager and Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley acted as co-managers in respect of the issue of the Bonds.
The issue of the Bonds priced at a spread over 2068 Gilts of 80 basis points. The final coupon of 2.517 per cent. is the all-time lowest for a 100-year Sterling bond, the lowest coupon for a 100-year corporate bond in any currency, and the lowest coupon for a Sterling corporate bond with a tenor of longer than fifty years. The initial order book was £3.4 billion and, as a result, was 4.5 times over-subscribed.

The CMS team was led by partners Michael Cavers and Jason Harding and associates Chris Clark and Kirsty Templar.