Hong Kong-based backhaul operator Citic Telecom said, in a notice to the Hong Kong stock exchange, that it has signed a five-year US$630m loan with a syndicate of 11 banks.
ANZ, Bank of China, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, DBS, ING, Mizuho Corporate…
Hong Kong-based backhaul operator Citic Telecom said, in a notice to the Hong Kong stock exchange, that it has signed a five-year US$630m loan with a syndicate of 11 banks.
ANZ, Bank of China, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, DBS, ING, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Standard Chartered and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation were appointed as mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners, a spokesperson for the company told TelecomFinance. ICBC Macau, OCBC and China CITIC Bank International subsequently joined as mandated lead arrangers.
Citic Bank – a subsidiary of the Citic Group along with Citi Telecom – has agreed to provide US$20m out of the US$630m.
Part of this financing will be used to fund its acquisition of a 79% stake in Macanese incumbent Companhia de Telecomunicacoes de Macau (CTM) for US$1.16bn in early 2013.
The size of the facility was reduced from a previously targeted US$1.25bn to US$630m after Citic Telecom received “overwhelming responses toward its bonds and rights issuances”, the spokesperson said.
In February, the company issued 12-year bonds worth US$450m to help finance the transaction. And on 30 May, the company raised US$235.2m in a rights issue, which was 13.45 times oversubscribed.
Joint global coordinators and joint underwriters for the rights issue were Citic Securities, Standard Chartered, DBS Asia, Deutsche Bank, and UBS.
Citic agreed in January to buy out CWC’s and Portugal Telecom’s stakes, who jointly owned 80% of CTM.
The company has already received the green light from shareholders and Chinese governmental and regulatory authorities. However, the deal has yet to receive approval from the Macau government.
In a January stock exchange filing, Citic said it expects to complete the acquisition by September 2013.
