Chorus, the telecom infrastructure company carved out of incumbent Telecom New Zealand, has signed a NZ$1.35bn (US$1bn) syndicated bank facility as part of the demerger.
The funding was split into two equal tranches of NZ$675m (US$500m) over three…
Chorus, the telecom infrastructure company carved out of incumbent Telecom New Zealand, has signed a NZ$1.35bn (US$1bn) syndicated bank facility as part of the demerger.
The funding was split into two equal tranches of NZ$675m (US$500m) over three and five years. Citibank was hired as debt adviser, with ANZ and Westpac joining as lead arrangers and bookrunners.
Chorus CFO Andrew Carroll stated: “We initially sought NZ$1bn [US$760m] in bank financing and extended the bank facility to $1.35 billion following strong demand from domestic and foreign financial institutions. This means we can get on with building our fibre network with even greater funding certainty”.
The company is also planning to issue £234.8m (US$365m) of euro medium term notes maturing in 2020.
“The combination of bonds and syndicated bank facility means Chorus anticipates making only very limited drawings under the bridge facility, which will be refinanced out of working capital,” the company added.
Chorus said it anticipates commencing with approximately NZ$1.7bn [US$1.3bn] of net interest bearing net debt.
Chorus made its debut on the Australian Securities Exchange and the New Zealand Stock Exchange on 21 November and 23 November respectively, ahead of its demerger from Telecom NZ on 30 November.
In late May, the incumbent said that it would carry out structural separation, after officially winning the bid to build the country’s US$2.8bn ultra-fast broadband project (UFB).
