Bär & Karrer Advises Novartis on Placement of EUR 1,750,000,000 Guaranteed Notes

Novartis Finance S.A. completed the placement of two Notes of EUR 1,250,000,000 due 2023 and EUR 500,000,000 due 2028. The 2023 Notes were issued at 99.127% of their principal amount with an interest of 0.125% and will mature on 20 September 2023 at their nominal value. The 2028 Notes were issued at 98.480% with an interest of 0.625% and will mature on 20 September 2028 at their nominal value. Both Notes are guaranteed by Novartis AG. They are provisionally admitted to trading and expected to be listed on SIX Swiss Ex-change Ltd.

Barclays Bank PLC, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch acted as Joint Lead Managers, whereas HSBC Bank plc, Société Générale, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Limited and UBS Limited acted as Co-Managers.

Bär & Karrer acted as legal advisor to Novartis as to Swiss law in this transaction. The team included Thomas U. Reutter, Annette Weber and Michael Schneitter (all Capital Markets) as well as Daniel Lehmann and Michael Abegg (both Tax).