Wellcome Trust prices £275 million Bond
The Wellcome Trust, the UK’s largest and the world’s second largest charitable foundation funding biomedical research, today announces that it has priced £275 million of Guaranteed Bonds due 2021 (the “Bonds”). Barclays Capital, J.P. Morgan Cazenove and Morgan Stanley acted as joint bookrunners and joint lead managers of the issue.
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The issue priced at a spread over gilts of 115 basis points, the tightest corporate spread in Sterling bond markets for comparable tenor issues, since December 2007. The initial order book was more than three-and-a-half times over-subscribed.
The Wellcome Trust has over 20 years' experience of managing a highly diversified investment portfolio, valued at £12.2 billion at 31 March 2009, and continues to maintain a conservative approach to risk. In the 20 years since the portfolio's inception, it has delivered a 14 per cent net annualised return. In 2007, the Wellcome Trust was assigned Aaa (stable)/AAA (stable) ratings from Moody's and Standard & Poor's respectively.
Danny Truell, Chief Investment Officer of the Wellcome Trust, said: "We are delighted at the continued strong investor interest in the Trust and the strength of its portfolio. It has been our widely publicised strategy to review regularly market conditions and correspondingly, on occasion, to access the bond markets when circumstances are appropriate. We remain as committed as ever to our Aaa/AAA ratings from the agencies, and it is testament to the strength of our financial position that we have seen such strong demand for this bond."
The issuing entity for the Bonds will be Wellcome Trust Finance plc, a special purpose vehicle incorporated in England and Wales, and the Bonds will be unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed pursuant to the terms of a guarantee given by the Wellcome Trust. The Bonds will be offered to investors outside the United States in accordance with Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending over £600 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.