Tempur-Pedic to issue $350 million in notes to finance Sealy deal

Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, December 10, 2012

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Tempur-Pedic said it plans to sell $350 million in senior unsecured notes to help finance its acquisition of rival mattress producer Sealy Inc.

Tempur-Pedic said it will offer the notes exclusively to qualified institutional buyers and certain international buyers.

The company said it will place proceeds from the sale of the notes in escrow until it receives regulatory approval for the acquisition and satisfies other closing conditions.

In late November, Tempur-Pedic and Sealy said they received requests for additional information from the Federal Trade Commission under provisions of the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust act. The merger can't be completed for at least 30 days after both companies have substantially complied with the requests, but Tempur-Pedic said it still expects to close the deal in the first half of 2013.

Tempur-Pedic has agreed to acquire Sealy in a deal valued at $1.3 billion, including the assumption of Sealy's debt.

Separately, Tempur-Pedic said it is reaffirming its sales and earnings projections for 2012. The company said it expects sales to be approximately $1.4 billion and earnings per share to be about $2.55.

The earnings projection doesn't include costs associated with the Sealy acquisition or a tax provision expected to be recorded in the fourth quarter in connection with the repatriation of foreign earnings, the company said.