France’s Iliad, owner of Free Mobile, has secured a €1.4bn (US$1.9bn) refinancing of a 2010 syndicated credit facility with 12 international banks.
The refinanced credit facility has an initial five-year term maturing in 2018 which may be extended…
France’s Iliad, owner of Free Mobile, has secured a €1.4bn (US$1.9bn) refinancing of a 2010 syndicated credit facility with 12 international banks.
The refinanced credit facility has an initial five-year term maturing in 2018 which may be extended by two years.
Iliad said the new facility has enabled it to increase its financial flexibility and the average lifespan of borrowed debt. The company said its debt levels remain the same, but the conditions of the new facility are better. Iliad noted that its new status as an integrated landline and mobile operator helped it secure an initial lending margin of 0.70%.
Mandated arrangers and bookrunners for the new facility, which was oversubscribed, were: BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Groupe Credit Mutuel, HSBC, ING Bank, Landesbank Hessen – Thurigen Girozentrale, Natixis and Societe Generale. Sumitomo Mitsui was also a mandated arranger, while La Banque Postale, Barclays and Bank of China were also arrangers.
As reported yesterday, Free – France’s newest and smallest mobile operator – has signalled its intention to join the proposed network sharing agreement between rivals SFR and Bouygues. French newspaper Les Echos suggested Free’s comments were also a message to incumbent Orange, with which it has a 4G roaming deal. However, Orange CEO Stephane Richard told the paper in a recent interview that the size of the French market did not justify four operators and that the potential agreement between SFR and Bouygues would be “a form of consolidation”.
Richard stressed he is not considering a similar move with Free.
Free said it had more than 7.4 million mobile and more than 5.5 million broadband subscribers at the end of September this year.