Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is to issue up to US$16bn in bonds to finance its acquisition of Whole Foods Market Inc (NASDAQ:WFM).
The senior unsecured notes will be available via a private offering.
Debt rating agency Moody’s assigned a Baa1 rating to the proposed offering, and changes its rating outlook on Amazon to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’.
READ: Amazon Inc poised to clinch its biggest ever deal by splashing US$13.7bn on Whole Foods Market Inc
"The change in outlook to positive reflects our view that despite the increase in debt, the Whole Foods acquisition is an immediate credit positive for the company on a variety of fronts," said Moody's vice president Charlie O'Shea.
"Whole Foods provides Amazon with greater scale and a crucial brick-and-mortar presence in a segment where it has been trying to grow, and the almost 500 existing Whole Foods locations can be utilized to expand food delivery, as well as provide pick-up points for online orders of any type," O'Shea said.