Harvard plans $600 million bond issue: report

(Reuters) - Harvard University is preparing a $600 million bond issue to partly repay existing debt and also to cancel certain interest rate swap agreements, the Wall Street Journal said.

The preliminary prospectus dated December3, says the tax-exempt issue will be managed by JP Morgan Securities Inc and also includes UBS Financial Services Inc as the retail distributor of the bonds, the paper reported.

On Wednesday, the university said its endowment has lost 22 percent or roughly $8 billion in the last four months, leaving the world's richest university on track to deliver its worst returns in 40 years.

Despite the recent loss, Harvard University bonds are expected to carry a full investment-grade rating, the paper said.

Harvard University could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Erica Billingham)