OREANDA-NEWS. The Treasury team of Merck, a leading science and technology company, was named European Treasury Team of the Year by the British Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT).

The team led by Rando Bruns, Head of Group Treasury, received this distinction for the pivotal role it played in the financing of the Sigma Aldrich acquisition. According to "The Treasurer", a journal published by ACT, the USD 17 billion deal was the largest corporate acquisition financing in Europe since the financial crisis in 2008.

Both the loan facility amounting to USD 15.6 billion and the subsequent international bond market transactions, which had a volume of EUR 7 billion and were used to repay part of the loan facility, took place in a volatile market environment. Both the hedging of the purchase price and the rapid integration of the Sigma-Aldrich treasury activities were further successes recognized by the award.

"Congratulations to Rando Bruns and his team. They did a superb job of arranging the financing for the Sigma-Aldrich acquisition and completing the integration," said Merck CFO Marcus Kuhnert.

At the award ceremony, the judges commented as follows on the Merck Treasury team, "Merck has been a serial nominee and a respected previous winner. It is a high-quality team in a global business."

The most recent distinction is the latest in a series of awards that Merck has won for its financing of the Sigma-Aldrich acquisition. At the Structured Finance Conference in Stuttgart, Germany in December 2015, the company won the Treasury of the Year award for the way in which they financed the Sigma-Aldrich acquisition and hedged the currency risks of the purchase price. In June 2015 at a ceremony in London, the Treasury team received the Adam Smith Award 2015 in the "First Class Relationship Management" category for the financing of the Sigma-Aldrich transaction.