US satellite DTH provider DirecTV has issued US$1.2bn worth of senior notes due January 2025 to refinance existing debt.
The bond carries a 3.95% coupon and will replace the US$1.2bn of 3.55% senior notes due March 2015 that it has outstanding.
It…
US satellite DTH provider DirecTV has issued US$1.2bn worth of senior notes due January 2025 to refinance existing debt.
The bond carries a 3.95% coupon and will replace the US$1.2bn of 3.55% senior notes due March 2015 that it has outstanding.
It priced at 99.313%, offering a yield to maturity of 4.033%.
Barclays, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Santander, Deutsche Bank and RBC were listed as joint book-running managers.
The DTH giant is counting down to the launch of its DirecTV-14 satellite on Thursday from French Guiana in what is set to be Arianespace’s final Ariane 5 flight for the year.
Built by US-based Space Systems Loral, the spacecraft will use Ka-band and the new ‘reverse’ DBS-band to expand its high definition TV offering, as well as rolling out new services.
It will be launched together with the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) GSAT-16 telecoms satellite, which will provide C- and Ku-band services that include VSAT, TV broadcasting and emergency communications.
DirecTV-14 has been installed in the upper payload position of the Ariane 5 and is the larger of the two passengers.
The satellite broadcaster is currently in the middle of being bought by US telecoms giant AT&T in a US$48.5bn deal.
US communications regulator the FCC recently restarted its informal 180-day shot-clock to review the planned merger. The comission had paused its review of the merger in October, after a number of media companies refused to give third parties access to confidential programming deals between them and the pay-TV operator.
Fitch Ratings expects to assign DirecTV’s new notes with a ‘BBB-(EXP)’ Rating Watch Positive rating. DirecTV Holding LLC, the group’s wholly-owned indirect subsidiary, has had its ‘BBB-‘ Issuer Default Rating under Rating Watch Positive since AT&T announced its acquisition in May 2014.
AT&T’s Issuer Default Rating is ‘A’ and is on Rating Watch Negative.
