Debevoise & Plimpton and Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy have taken the lead roles on Verizon's $49bn (£31bn) US bond issue, the largest corporate debt sale in history.

The bond sale comes as the US telecoms group raises capital to finance its acquisition of Vodafone's 45% stake of Verizon Wireless, a $130bn (£84bn) deal which handed roles to a raft of firms including Slaughter and May and Macfarlanes.

Debevoise is advising Verizon on the debt sale with a New York team led by corporate chair Jeffrey Rosen, corporate partners Michael Diz and Steven Slutzky and tax partner Peter Furci.

Milbank represented the large underwriter group that brought the macro offering to market – in eight separate tranches.

Milbank's deal team was led by global securities partners Robert Mullen and Paul Denaro – the firm has been underwriter counsel on other major debt transactions by Verizon. 

The sale is almost three times as large as Apple's $17bn (£11bn) bond issue in April, the previous record for a corporate debt sale. Apple was advised by Hogan Lovells on the sale while Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett advised the underwriters, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs.

The sale of Vodafone's stake in Verizon, one of the largest corporate deals in history, saw Slaughters take the lead role for Vodafone, with regular corporate adviser Linklaters missing out.

Simpson Thacher advised the telecoms giant on US law while Macfarlanes took a lead transactional role for Verizon alongside Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek and Jones Day advised Vodafone and Verizon respectively on tax issues.

For more, see Slaughters, Macfarlanes lead on $130bn Vodafone-Verizon deal as Links misses out.