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US
Best corporate bond
Winner:Kellogg
Date: March 23 2001
Amount: $4.6 billion
Underwriters: Citigroup (global coordinator); JPMorgan (Joint books)
Everybody knows Kellogg. The Kellogg's brand's dominance of the breakfast cereal market makes it one of the best known in the US. And that made for more enjoyable roadshow meetings for the firm's multi-tranche debt deal than might have been the case for firms with less snap, crackle and pop. "Meetings would start with investors saying things such as 'I remember being a kid and eating frosted flakes...' rather than jumping straight into cashflow analysis," says Maurice Lopez, director in debt capital markets for Citigroup, global coordinator for the deal.
| Tony the Tiger led the applause for Kellogg's bond-funded acquisition of Keebler |
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But Kellogg also had its problems. To be more precise, it had in recent months suffered a six-notch downgrade, placing it on a triple-B rating, perilously close to sub-investment-grade status.