...October 19, 2021 TORONTO (S&P Global Ratings) Oct. 19, 2021--S&P Global Ratings today assigned its '###+' issue-level rating to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.'s (###+/Positive/A-2) proposed USD-denominated senior unsecured notes that we assume will be broken out into five tranches with maturities ranging from 18 months to 3 years. We believe the company intends to use the net proceeds from the proposed issuance to pay a portion of the $17.4 billion cash consideration payable for its planned acquisition of contract research organization (CRO) PPD Inc., as well as for general corporate purposes. This debt offering marks the company's third time accessing the unsecured debt market this year to raise cash to fund the pending acquisition. The company raised about US$3.1 billion in August 2021 and about 5.25 billion earlier this month. We assume the pending acquisition of PPD will close by the end of 2021 and generate about $6 billion of annual revenue. While the acquisition is large, we believe...
