FRANKFURT, March 17 (Reuters) - Germany's Merck KGaA on Tuesday placed a $4 billion bond with institutional investors to help fund its $17 billion acquisition of U.S. lab supplies company Sigma-Aldrich.
A total of five tranches with floating and fixed rates and maturities between two and 10 years were placed.
The $250 million floating rate notes have a maturity of two years with a 0.35 percentage point spread over the three-month U.S. dollar LIBOR.
The fixed rate notes comprise $400 million worth of three-year notes with a coupon of 1.70 percent, $750 million worth of five-year notes with a coupon of 2.40 percent, $1.0 billion worth of seven-year notes with 2.95 percent coupon and $1.6 billion worth of 10-year notes at 3.25 percent.
Family-controlled Merck agreed in September to acquire Sigma-Aldrich, the biggest takeover in its history, and plans to wrap up the deal in the middle of this year.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Maria Sheahan)