Bad Soden, Germany, November 20, 2024 – In November, Messer, the world's leading privately owned specialist in industrial, medical and specialty gases, issued long-term instruments to fully refinance a remaining acquisition loan of 500 million euros resulting from the acquisition of all shares in Messer Industries.
Exactly one year earlier – on November 13, 2023 – Messer utilized short-term acquisition loans of 900 million US dollars and 1,450 million euros to finance part of the shares acquired in Messer Industries from minority owner CVC Capital Partners. Except for an amount of 500 million euros, these loans had already been refinanced by the issuance of private placements in US dollars in March 2024 and of Schuldscheindarlehen (“promissory notes”) in euros in July 2024.
Messer was now able to secure a further 272 million euros in private placements with tenors of ten and twelve years. In addition, Schuldscheindarlehen (“promissory notes”) with tenors of three and five years were issued for a total amount of 200 million euros. The remaining amount was repaid from available liquidity.
Helmut Kaschenz, Chief Financial Officer of Messer, said: “We are very pleased that we were able to refinance the acquisition debt on a long-term basis and in full within just one year. The successful issuance of US private placements and Schuldscheindarlehen by mid-year was the basis on which we were now able to implement the last step of our take-out strategy. The repayment of the bridge financing provides further flexibility to support Messer’s future growth.”
