McAfee Brings $3.3 Billion of Junk Bonds to Finance Buyout

Paula Seligson and Gowri Gurumurthy, Bloomberg News

Signage is displayed outside McAfee Corp. headquarters in Santa Clara, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020. Cybersecurity software maker McAfee Corp. has filed to go public, adding to the roster of companies rushing to cash in on a hot market for U.S. initial public offerings. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- McAfee Corp. came forward with a $3.3 billion two-part bond deal on Monday to help finance its leveraged buyout by a group of private equity firms, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The cybersecurity software maker is selling $1 billion of seven-year secured notes and $2.32 billion eight-year unsecured bonds, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a private transaction.

An investor call will be held on Tuesday at 11 a.m. in New York, they added. The deal will market through Thursday with pricing expected thereafter, they said.

A group of private equity firms led by Advent International Corp. and Permira Advisers are buying McAfee in a deal valued at more than $14 billion, including debt. McAfee is also marketing a cross-border leveraged loan as part of the transaction, comprised of a $4.41 billion tranche and a $1.25 billion-equivalent euro portion. Commitments are due on Wednesday.

Early pricing discussions on the deal have increased amid market volatility. In early January, McAfee initially floated a yield of about 4.5% for the secured portion and 6.5% for the unsecured notes, though the levels were subject to change to account for weakness across credit, Bloomberg previously reported. They’ve since increased to the low-5% range for the secured notes and low-7% yield for the unsecured bonds, different people said.

Representatives for Permira, Credit Suisse Group AG, which is leading the secured notes, and Bank of America Corp., which is leading the unsecured bonds, declined to comment. Representatives for McAfee and Advent didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

McAfee’s financing package joins others funding leveraged buyouts in January as companies rush to lock in low borrowing costs before the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, though some are getting dinged by market volatility. The financing for Athenahealth Inc., a health information technology company, wrapped up last week, and the bonds immediately fell below par in secondary trading.

Read more: Wall Street Makes $18 Billion Bet on LBOs as Yields Climb

Covis Pharmaceuticals Inc. added a number of sweeteners to a $900 million junk-debt sale, the latest borrower to struggle to attract demand from investors. The company, owned by Apollo Global Management Inc., on Monday cut the size of one portion of the bond offering to $350 million euros equivalent from $375 million, and scrapped the dollar bonds in favor of an increased $550 million term loan.

Financial information services firm Ion Analytics shelved a junk-bond sale Friday amid a tougher backdrop for borrowers bracing for central bank rate hikes, after originally halving the size of the notes offering.

U.S. junk bonds are poised for their worst January on record with a month-to-date loss of 2.8%. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s hawkish tone helped send yields jumping 109 basis points month-to-date to 5.3%, the highest in 15 months.

(Updates fifth and sixth paragraphs with pricing discussions and comments.)