Abbott details $15B AbbVie spinout financing | Wall Street Beat

Abbott puts together a nearly $15 billion financing package with Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch to back the spinout of its pharmaceuticals arm as AbbVie.

Abbott [1] (NYSE:ABT [2]) is putting a $14.5 billion financing package in place to back the spinout of its research pharmaceuticals division into a separate company called AbbVie.

Morgan Stanley is putting up a $7.5 billion bridge loan, JP Morgan is putting up a $5 billion revolving credit line and Bank of America Merrill Lynch is leading a separate $2 billion revolver, un-named sources told Thomson Reuters.

Last year Abbott announced [3] its plan to spin out the pharma biz, saying it would keep the Abbott brand for its diversified medical businesses. Abbott CEO Miles White later told shareholders [4] in a letter that the split "reflects long-term changes in the healthcare market that have led us over time to create distinctly different business models." Earlier this month the company revealed the new executive roster for AbbVie [5].