UnitedHealth Group has sold $9 billion of bonds that will help to refinance short-term debt the company took on to partially fund its purchase of Change Healthcare for $7.8 billion, Bloomberg reported Oct. 25.
The acquisition closed in September following an antitrust challenge from the Justice Department.
Bloomberg said UnitedHealth sold the bonds in seven parts. A 40-year security is the largest and will yield 185 basis points over treasuries.
"They have robust cash flow to fund the acquisition and I don't think they necessarily need the financing," Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mike Holland said. "This is an industry bellwether and there hasn't been lots of new health-care debt, so I expect investor demand for the deal to be good."
UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty said Oct. 14 the company will spend at least $100 million to integrate Optum Insight with Change.
"It's a great moment to bring together tremendous complementary skills, capabilities, technologies and perspectives on the marketplace," Mr. Witty said. "As we roll through the next two quarters or three quarters, we really anticipate a kind of new Optum Insight emerging from this integration."