US telco AT&T has priced a €2.5bn(US$2.8bn) unsecured bond offering in two tranches, each worth €1.25bn(US$1.4bn).
The first 2023 tranche, carrying a 1.3% interest, was priced at 99.619%, while the second tranche, due 2035, was priced at…
US telco AT&T has priced a €2.5bn(US$2.8bn) unsecured bond offering in two tranches, each worth €1.25bn(US$1.4bn).
The first 2023 tranche, carrying a 1.3% interest, was priced at 99.619%, while the second tranche, due 2035, was priced at 99.328% and carries a 2.450% interest.
The company, which plans to list the notes on the New York Stock Exchange, will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including repayment of upcoming debt maturities.
Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Lloyds served as joint bookrunners on the offering, which was rated Baa1 by Moody’s, BBB+ by S&P and A- by Fitch respectively.
Last month, AT&T spent US$18.2bn in the country’s AWS-3 spectrum auction to acquire contiguous 10×10 MHz blocks of AWS-3 spectrum covering approximately 96% of the US population.
According to Fitch, the telco, which is due to pay the full amount by 2 March, will fund the spectrum buys with its US$11.155bn in term loan facilities, which it secured in January, and a portion of its cash balances.
Last month, the company also listed a US$2.6bn bond on Taiwan’s GreTai securities market.
The Texas-based carrier recently said that its spending would likely push the group over its 1.8x net-debt-to-EBITDA target in the near term, adding that it will use excess cash – after paying its dividend – over the next three years to pay down debt, which stood at US$82.1bn as of 31 December 2014.
The company is reportedly selling US$2bn worth of data centres and has hired an unnamed financial adviser to assist in the sale.
In January, it acquired Nextel Mexico, the local unit of bankrupt US telecoms group NII Holdings, for US$1.87bn. AT&T plans to merge it with the country’s third-largest player, Iusacell, which it recently bought from Grupo Salinas for US$2.5bn.
The Texas-based carrier is also awaiting regulatory approval for the takeover of pan-American DTH operator DirecTV, which holds a 41.3% stake in Sky Mexico.
