FRANKFURT, May 6 (Reuters) - German engineering group Schaeffler <IPO-SHF.F> said it had refinanced around 3.5 billion euros ($4.9 billion) worth of debt, including new bond issues of around 2 billion euros.
Schaeffler said it would place euro and dollar-denominated senior secured benchmark bonds with maturities of 5, 7 and 8 years wih institutional investors and would also place a debut unsecured euro bond with a 5 year maturity.
It will also replace loan tranches of around 1.6 billion euros with new loans at improved terms. ($1 = 0.7205 Euros) (Reporting by Victoria Bryan)