Elan bond buyback worth $800m

Pharmaceutical firm Elan has bought back bonds worth almost $800m (€649.51m) from money raised in a recent share and bond offering.

It said it bought a total of $493m (€400m) for the Liquid Yield Option Notes (LYONs).

The company said that it was advised by the LYONS trustee, the Bank of New York, that an aggregate principal amount at maturity of approximately $799.7m (€649m) were validly surrendered for repurchase and not withdrawn, by last night’s deadline.

The company began the procedure to buy the notes last month.

Holders could surrender the notes at any time up to December 15, 2003.

Shares in Elan rose 5c to €4.80 in early trading on the Iseq index this morning.