DealZone

There’s an art to financing a deal and Kraft and Berkshire Hathaway ‘s brushstrokes are showing. Kraft launched a $9.5 billion debt sale to help finance its acquisition of Cadbury, and Berkshire announced a bond sale of up to $8 billion to help pay for its acquisition of Burlington Northern Sante Fe.

Berkshire’s bond sale announcement comes on the same day S&P stripped the company of its top AAA rating, citing capital adequacy and liquidity concerns related to the Burlington acquisition. An investment strategist tells Bloomberg the ratings firms are “are hedging their bets in the event of another economic downturn.”

More from Reuters and the Web:

• Kraft to sell $9.5 billion debt to buy Cadbury: report (Reuters)
• S&P strips Berkshire Hathaway of AAA rating (Reuters)
• Buffett Stripped of His Last AAA Rating as S&P Cuts Berkshire (Bloomberg)
• End of TALF Means Bond Spreads Five-Fold Wider: Credit Markets (Bloomberg)
• Buyout firms face tough fundraising choice (Reuters)