Dow Chemical (DOW) priced a $2.75 billion public debt offering in an effort to repay a loan used to acquire Rohm & Haas in April this year.

The offering includes $250 million of floating rate notes due 2011, $1.25 billion of 4.85% of notes due 2012 and $1.25 billion worth of 5.90% notes due 2015. The proceeds will be used to repay a bridge loan used for the $16.5 billion acquisition by the year-end.

In April, Dow acquired all outstanding shares of Rohm & Haas at $78 each, funding the deal by issuing $7 billion in preferred stock and borrowing $9.23 billion in a short-term loan.

To help finance the transaction, Dow has also renegotiated a $12.5 billion bridge loan syndicated by 19 banks led by Citigroup (C), Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley (MS). This new loan agreement adds two years to the repayment and has slightly looser

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I had a very interesting meeting with the largest athletic shoe company in the world, Yue Yuen Industrial (0551.HK). The soles of tennis shoes are made from 'synthetic' rubber, a combination of petroleum-based chemicals as well as rubber. Since the cost of oil is soaring, so is the cost of synthetic rubber. That doesn't mean Yue Yuen International is headed for trouble. It does mean that they'll need to improve productivity and/or raise prices to compensate for the raw materials increase. I did have a fascinating discussion with the CEO about the success of their manufacturing plant in Vietnam.