Item 1.01. Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement.
Senior Secured Notes Offering
On February 10, 2022, Bausch Health Companies Inc. (the “Company”) completed its previously announced offering of $1,000,000,000 aggregate principal amount of its 6.125% Senior Notes due 2027 (the “Notes”).
The Notes were offered in the United States and sold to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and outside the United States to non-U.S. persons pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act. The Notes have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act or any state securities law and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements.
The net proceeds of the Notes offering, along with the proceeds from new term B loans expected to be borrowed in connection with the Company’s previously announced refinancing of its existing credit agreement (the “Credit Agreement” and such refinancing, the “Credit Agreement Refinancing”), the initial public offering (“IPO”) of Bausch + Lomb Corporation (“Bausch + Lomb” and such offering, the “Bausch + Lomb IPO”) and the repayment of an intercompany note owed to the Company by Bausch + Lomb (which repayment is expected to be funded by a related debt financing by Bausch + Lomb, are expected to be used to fund the Company’s previously announced conditional redemption in full of its outstanding 6.125% Senior Notes due 2025 (the “6.125% Notes due 2025”), refinance all of the existing term B loans, fund the Company’s previously announced conditional partial redemption of its outstanding 9.000% Senior Notes due 2025 (the “9.000% Notes due 2025” and, collectively with the 6.125% Senior Notes due 2025, the “Existing Notes”) and to pay related fees, premiums and expenses.
The Notes Indenture
The Notes were issued pursuant to the indenture, dated as of February 10, 2022 (the “Indenture”), among the Company, the guarantors named therein, The Bank of New York Mellon, as trustee and the notes collateral agents party thereto.
Interest and Maturity
Pursuant to the Indenture, the Notes will mature on February 1, 2027. Interest on the Notes will be payable semi-annually in arrears on each February 1 and August 1, beginning on August 1, 2022.
Guarantees
The Notes will initially be jointly and severally guaranteed on a senior secured basis by each of the Company’s subsidiaries that is a guarantor under the Credit Agreement, the Company’s existing senior secured notes (the “Existing Senior Secured Notes”) and the Company’s existing senior unsecured notes (the “Existing Senior Unsecured Notes” and, such guarantors, the “Note Guarantors”). The Notes and the guarantees related thereto will be senior obligations and will be secured, subject to permitted liens and certain other exceptions, by the same first priority liens that secure the obligations of the Company and the Notes Guarantors under the Credit Agreement and the Existing Senior Secured Notes. Effective on the closing date of the Bausch + Lomb IPO, we expect that Bausch + Lomb and its subsidiaries will cease to be guarantors under the Credit Agreement and, as a result, will cease to guarantee the Notes.
Ranking
The Notes and the guarantees related thereto will be:
| • | | general secured obligations, secured by a first-priority lien (subject to permitted liens and certain other exceptions) on the collateral; |
| • | | pari passu in right of payment with all existing and future unsubordinated indebtedness of the Company and the Note Guarantors; |
| • | | effectively pari passu with all existing and future indebtedness secured by a first-priority lien on the collateral (including the credit facilities and the Existing Secured Notes); |
| • | | effectively senior to all existing and future indebtedness that is unsecured (including the Existing Senior Notes and the guarantees thereof) or that is secured by junior liens, in each case to the extent of the value of the collateral; and |