Bharti Airtel has issued US dollar-denominated notes, with reports that the offering is already fully subscribed.
In an announcement to the Bombay stock exchange today, the Indian telco said that its Netherlands subsidiary had issued the senior…
Bharti Airtel has issued US dollar-denominated notes, with reports that the offering is already fully subscribed.
In an announcement to the Bombay stock exchange today, the Indian telco said that its Netherlands subsidiary had issued the senior unsecured bonds, which are to be used for refinancing foreign currency debt and general corporate purposes.
Media reports citing sources say that the US$1bn bond matures in ten years, carries a 5.5% coupon and has already seen a full uptake from overseas investors.
An investor relations spokesperson at Bharti Airtel refused to confirm details of the bond to TelecomFinance today, but said that another statement would be released in the next couple of days.
As TelecomFinance reported last month, Bharti Airtel was said to have mandated Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered and UBS as arrangers for the bond, which has been rated ‘BBB-‘ by Fitch and ‘BB+’ by Standard & Poor’s.
Analysts at the time told TelecomFinance they expected a lot of interest in the offering, especially from overseas investors.
Back in 2011, Bharti Airtel met with investors to raise US$1bn from a bond sale, but decided not to go ahead with it.
Bharti Airtel had total debt of US$13.6bn and cash and equivalents of US$1.9bn at the end of December 2012, according to Fitch.