Printing giant, R.R. Donnelley & Sons said Wednesday it entered into an agreement with Visant Corp. to acquire Von Hoffman, a printer of books and other products that serve the education, trade and b-to-b catalog segments, for $412.5 million. Today, the company made a $1.25 billion debt offering to pay for its $1.3 billion acquisition of Banta Corp.
R.R. Donnelley CEO Mark Angelson said in a statement that the company’s latest transaction completes the company’s "trilogy" of transactions designed to offer its customers greater capacity and flexibility. Over the past two months, Donnelley has entered into agreements to purchase Banta Corp. and Perry Judd’s for $1.3 billion and $47 million, respectively. Angelson said the deals position the company for future growth.
The deal with Von Hoffman, like the Banta and Perry Judd’s deals, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2007. Donnelley is the world’s largest publisher with $9 billion in revenues.
In its debt offering, the company is pricing its senior notes in two tranches — $625 million at 5.625 percent, due Jan. 15, 2012; and $625 million at 6.125 percent, due Jan. 15, 2017. The company will use a portion of the notes in its acquisition of Banta, which includes the repayment of Banta’s debt.
