Charles River closes $300M notes sale

US firm Charles River Laboratories International has announced the closing of its sale of $300.0 million principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2013 in an offering to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933. The net proceeds from this offering were approximately $293.0 million, after deducting estimated discounts, commissions and expenses.

Charles River rebought around $150.0 million, or 3.7 million shares, of its common stock in negotiated transactions from purchasers of the notes concurrently with the offering. In addition, the firm used about $28.0 million of the proceeds to fund the net cost of the convertible note hedge and warrant transactions that it entered into with certain of the initial buyers of the notes or their affiliates. The warrants have an exercise price that is 50% higher than the closing price of Charles River's common stock on June 6, 2006.

The remaining proceeds from the notes offering will be used for general corporate purposes, including repurchase of shares of Charles River common stock in the open market from time to time, which may be made pursuant to an accelerated share repurchase program.