Bristol-Myers Blockbuster Gives M&A Loans Record Start to Year

(Bloomberg) -- Just three days into 2019, the acquisition-loan market is already setting records.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s $33.5 billion bridge loan for the purchase of Celgene Corp. will make this a record January worldwide for such facilities, based on Bloomberg data. Morgan Stanley and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. are fully underwriting the deal, which backs a $74 billion takeover.

The seventh-biggest bridge deal of all time also extends a bumper run for U.S. loan demand after investment-grade borrowers raised a record $1.2 trillion of syndicated loans last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jacqueline Poh in London at jpoh39@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Hannah Benjamin at hbenjamin1@bloomberg.net, Neil Denslow, Emma Haslett

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