India’s Bharti Airtel is looking to secure an estimated US$1bn in bonds sold principally to European investors.
Part of the proceeds is expected to be used to fund its bid for 900 MHz spectrum in the January auction in India.
Some of the money could…
India’s Bharti Airtel is looking to secure an estimated US$1bn in bonds sold principally to European investors.
Part of the proceeds is expected to be used to fund its bid for 900 MHz spectrum in the January auction in India.
Some of the money could also go towards refinancing debt and taking over smaller operators, according to the Economic Times citing several people familiar with the matter.
Moody’s has assigned a Baa3 rating to the proposed senior unsecured issue, with senior VP Laura Acres saying that the rating is “underpinned by its receipt of strong and growing cash flows from its Indian operations”.
She however added that “concerns exist regarding its exposure to the risk of changes to the regulatory and political environments in some of the countries in which it operates, especially after its 2010 investment into 15 (now 17) African countries”.
JP Morgan, Barclays, UBS, Standard Chartered and BNP Paribas are reportedly joint bookrunners and lead managers for the issue. Investor meetings will start tomorrow in Europe.
TelecomFinance reported last week that representatives from Bharti were in London to meet several tower companies to discuss the sale of its African passive infrastructure.
Helios, Eaton, IHS, and American Tower are said to have submitted expressions of interest for some of the 15,000 towers. Bharti’s total site portfolio on the African continent has been valued at around US$1.8bn-US$2bn.
A sale of its towers and a potential bond issue would help reduce the Indian giant’s debt load, which stood at about US$9.7bn as of 30 September, while also improving the debt profile. Some of this debt was incurred when Bharti acquired most of Zain’s African operations for US$10.7bn in 2010.
