OTE has become Greece’s first corporate bond issuer in over a year, making good on a plan announced earlier this week.
Greek incumbent OTE has concluded the bookbuilding process for a €350m (US$370.1m) four-year fixed-rate bond.
The coupon was set at 4.375%, and the issue was two times oversubscribed, the company said in a statement.
Citi, Deutsche Bank and HSBC are joint bookrunners, with Alpha Bank, Eurobank Ergasias, National Bank of Greece and Piraeus Bank acting as co-managers.
OTE said it would use the proceeds to repurchase May 2016 and February 2018 bonds under a tender offer expiring on the 27 November, and help finance “substantial investments” in new generation networks.
OTE group chairman and CEO Michael Tsamaz commented: “This is the first new international bond issue by a Greek corporate for over a year. It is a vote of confidence of the international capital markets to both OTE and the country. The demand for the new bond is an acknowledgement of our strategy as well as of the stabilisation and prospects of the Greek economy.”
The bond, part of OTE’s global medium term note programme, is governed by English Law and will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, most likely on 2 December.
OTE, which trades as Cosmote, also has subsidiaries in Albania and Romania, serving a total of 15 million mobile customers, it says.
The company is 40% plus one share owned by Deutsche Telekom.