Fonterra cuts bond sale to $150 million after sourcing cheaper offshore funds

Thursday 11th February 2010

Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world’s largest exporter of dairy products, has slashed $100 million from a bond offer opening next week, saying it was able to source funding from offshore at a “very attractive cost.”

The dairy cooperative is offering up to $100 million of unsecured fixed rate senior bonds, with the ability to take up to $50 million in oversubscriptions, which will mature on March 4, 2016. The company plans to use the funds to partially repay a 300 million euro medium term note that matures in April, as well as use it for general operations.

“The offer size has been scaled back to a maximum of $150 million as Fonterra has been able to cover part of its financing requirements overseas at a very attractive funding cost,” it said in a statement.

Joint leaders for the issue will be ANZ Bank, Bank of New Zealand and Westpac Institutional Bank.

The offer opens next Thursday at a minimum investment of $5,000 with multiples of $1,000 thereafter. The coupon will be announced next Wednesday. Fitch Ratings has assigned the issue an AA- rating while Standard & Poor’s has given it an A+ rating.

Businesswire.co.nz

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