Sri Lanka’s largest mobile carrier Dialog Axiata has secured a US$200m syndicated term loan facility maturing in 2018.
The facility was arranged by OCBC Bank Malaysia and Standard Chartered and proceeds will be used to finance the company capex and…
Sri Lanka’s largest mobile carrier Dialog Axiata has secured a US$200m syndicated term loan facility maturing in 2018.
The facility was arranged by OCBC Bank Malaysia and Standard Chartered and proceeds will be used to finance the company capex and working capital requirements as well as to refinance existing debt, according to a stock exchange notice.
As of 30 June 2013, the telco’s total borrowings stood at LKR24.2bn (US$183.6m).
In October last year, Dialog received board approval for the establishment of a 15-year Islamic medium-term note programme of up to MR1.2bn (US$394m) in Malaysia.
The company, which is a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Axiata Group, said at the time it planned to use the proceeds to refinance existing debt and sukuk, fund investments and operational and capex, as well as for working capital purposes.
A few months later, Dialog secured a 10 MHz LTE licence auctioned by Sri Lanka’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission for LKR3.3bn (US$26m).
More recently, in May, it bought local pay-TV operator Sky Television and Radio Network for LKR800m (US$6.3m), allowing it to expand its fixed LTE service.
Dialog has about 8 million customers across Sri Lanka. It was the first operator to offer LTE services when its subsidiary Dialog Broadband Networks launched 4G services late last year. It competes against four other mobile operators.
