Chorus to raise up to $400 mln in bond issue to repay bank debt

Wednesday 30th March 2016

Chorus plans to raise as much as $400 million through a five-year bond issue to help repay $1.67 billion of bank debt, joining a growing number of companies refinancing through the listed debt market.

The Wellington-based telecommunications network operator will sell $300 million of five-year, unsecured, unsubordinated fixed-rate bonds with oversubscriptions of up to another $100 million, it said in a statement. The proceeds will go towards repaying existing bank loans.

Chorus had bank debt of $1.67 billion as at Dec. 31, of which $450 million comes due in July of this year. The company's effective interest rate was 6.9 percent in the year ended June 30, 2015, including a rate of 6.75 percent on 260 million British pounds of euro medium term notes.

The interest rate will be set by the company and joint lead managers ANZ Bank New Zealand and Westpac Banking Corp after holding a bookbuild on April 13. No indicative price was set, but the five-year swap rate was recently at 2.53 percent, near a record-low.

The offer won't have a public pool, opening on April 14 and closing on May 4.

Chorus shares rose 0.3 percent to $4, and have gained 2.1 percent so far this year.

(BusinessDesk)

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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