Greek telco Wind Hellas is reportedly close to a new debt financing to fund its future growth plans.
Citing banking sources, Reuters claims that the company is looking to raise around €175m (US$235m) through a five-year senior secured bond.
At the…
Greek telco Wind Hellas is reportedly close to a new debt financing to fund its future growth plans.
Citing banking sources, Reuters claims that the company is looking to raise around €175m (US$235m) through a five-year senior secured bond.
At the end of July, Wind Hellas announced that its holding company Largo Limited had mandated Citigroup to initiate a series of bond investor meetings.
The company stated that “a debt capital markets transaction may follow subject to management decision and market conditions”.
Largo Limited was formed by a group of senior bondholders in late 2010 as the holding company to acquire a struggling Wind Hellas from Weather Finance III, the investment vehicle of Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris.
The bondholders invested €420m (US$563m) to repay the company’s debt and fund Wind Hellas’ long-term development and business plan. The deal, however, meant that the company’s junior lenders lost billions as €1.867bn (US$2.5bn) of debt was cancelled as part of the restructuring.
The telco has been debt free since then.
Wind Hellas recently made a joint bid with Vodafone for Athens-listed alternative fixed-line operator Forthnet.
The two companies, which already own 33% and 6.5% of Forthnet respectively, have offered €1.70 to €1.90 (US$2.30 to US$2.60) per share for all outstanding stock.
Forthnet has a market capitalisation on the Athens bourse of €187.17m (US$253.14m), valuing the 60.5% of shares not owned by Vodafone and Wind at €113.23m (US$153.17m).
