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It was difficult to know immediately if a move by drug group AstraZeneca to tap the bond markets for $6.9bn to replace much of its commercial paper programme was opportunistic or done in something of an emergency.

But John Cole, AZ’s group treasurer is clear. “We were under no pressure whatsoever,” he told FT Alphavile on Thursday. Indeed, the company feels it has been able to maintain very good access to the credit markets, evidenced by the fact that its big cash raising in New York late on Wednesday was oversubscribed. The company might even have benefited from a flight to quality, Mr Cole added.

Back in the Spring, AZ agreed to buy MedImmune, the American biotech, for just over $15bn - a move that triggered credit rating downgrades. The deal clearly needed to be properly financed, on a long-term basis.

At first glance the company’s cost of funds seems to have jumped sharply, while it still appears to have a heap of potentially troublesome CP.

Using Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and JP Morgan, AZ has issued four new tranches of paper — $2.75bn worth of 30 year notes at 6.45 per cent, $1.75bn in 10 year notes at 5.9 per cent, $1.75 of 5 year notes at 5.4 per cent, and then a tail of 2 year floating paper at 30 bps over 3m $ Libor.

That compares with a reported weighted average of 5.4 per cent attached to its previous $13bn CP programme. Clearly, companies have to pay for the comfort and security of long-term money.
In a statement, chief executive David Brennan was able to declare himself “delighted” by investors’ reception.

In private we guess he would have used the word “relieved.”