Polish satellite and cable TV broadcaster TVN has finally completed its planned bond refinancing six months after it postponed the issuance due to market uncertainty over the Euro Crisis in Cyprus.
TVN sold €430m of 7-year senior notes paying 7.375%….
Polish satellite and cable TV broadcaster TVN has finally completed its planned bond refinancing six months after it postponed the issuance due to market uncertainty over the Euro Crisis in Cyprus.
TVN sold €430m of 7-year senior notes paying 7.375%. The notes priced at par and were four times oversubscribed.
Proceeds are to be used to together with remaining restricted cash from the disposal of web portal Group Onet.pl to repurchase the €558m outstanding of 10.75% senior notes due in 2017.
Markus Tellenbach, CEO of TVN Group, said: “Recently reported strong operating results on the back of TVN outperforming the gradually recovering TV advertising market have driven substantially improved terms for our debt, further supporting the management’s focus on creating shareholder value.”
TVN’s majority shareholder, Polish Television Holding, capitalised on that investor appetite and subsequently raised €300m through new 11% senior PIK (payment in kind) toggle notes due January 2021.
Proceeds from the PIK notes, which will pay cash interest of 11% annually or PIK interest of 12% per year, are being used to redeem all of the company’s outstanding 11.25% senior secured notes due 2017.
Netherlands-based finance holding company Polish Television Holding owns a 52.42% controlling interest in TVN, with the rest free float on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The parent company of PTH is NVision B.V. which in turn is controlled by the ITI Group with a holding of 60%.
The other 40% is owned by French DTH firm Canal+ which acquired the stake for €230m as part of a wider transaction in late 2012 that saw TVN and Canal+ merge their pay-TV platforms in Poland to create the second-largest satellite TV operator in the country behind Cyfrowy Polsat
Wojciech Kostrzewa, president and CEO of ITI Group, commented: “Following the successful placement by TVN of its €430m 7.375% unsecured Senior Notes due 2020, we were able to capitalize on the momentum and place the €300m PTH Senior PIK Toggle Notes due 2021. The PTH offering came in at the very tight end of the price talk with the order book being more than three times oversubscribed. The extension aligns the maturity of the PTH Senior PIK Toggle Notes with the maturity of the recently issued TVN Senior Notes.”
JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Nomura were the joint book-running managers for both note offerings, while BNP Paribas was a joint book-runner for TVN deal and issue co-manager for the PTH financing.
