Vimpelcom’s Wind Italy has priced its €4.07bn (US$5.6bn)-equivalent senior secured notes offering due 2020, which completes the subsidiary’s multi-step refinancing plan.
All three tranches – €575m of fixed-rate notes, €2.1bn of floating-rate…
Vimpelcom’s Wind Italy has priced its €4.07bn (US$5.6bn)-equivalent senior secured notes offering due 2020, which completes the subsidiary’s multi-step refinancing plan.
All three tranches – €575m of fixed-rate notes, €2.1bn of floating-rate notes and US$1.9bn of floating rate notes – priced at par. Final terms were set at Euribor plus 4% for the fixed-rate notes, 4% for the floating-rate euro tranche and 4.75% for the dollar tranche.
The fixed-rate tranche was upsized from an initial €500m, while the floating-rate euro tranche was reduced from an initial €2.15bn.
The completion of the indebted Wind group’s refinancing, first announced in March, will save about €300m in annual interest costs, Amsterdam-based VimpelCom said.
Wind Acquisition Finance (WAF) will use the proceeds of the new bond offering to refinance existing senior secured notes due 2018 and the non-extended part of Wind Telecomunicazioni’s senior credit facilities.
“The aim of the refinancing plan is to provide WAF and Wind with a more sustainable and manageable capital structure with an extended maturity profile and significant interest cost savings, resulting in stronger cash flows which will facilitate a deleveraging trajectory of WAF and Wind.”
In April, Wind issued a €3.78bn-equivalent bond due 2021 as part of the refinancing plan.
Wind reported revenues of €1.144bn for Q1 2014, EBITDA of €430m and net debt of €9.163bn.
Wind is Italy’s third-largest mobile operator after incumbent Telecom Italia and Vodafone and its leading alternative fixed-line operator.
