Fibre-based infrastructure provider Level 3 Communications has announced that its subsidiary Level 3 Escrow would issue US$600m in senior notes. The 8.125 per cent senior notes priced at $99.264 and will mature in 2019. The lead bookrunners for the…
Fibre-based infrastructure provider Level 3 Communications has announced that its subsidiary Level 3 Escrow would issue US$600m in senior notes. The 8.125 per cent senior notes priced at $99.264 and will mature in 2019. The lead bookrunners for the offering are BoA Merrill Lynch and Citigroup. The other bookrunners are Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley.
The gross proceeds of the offering will be deposited into a segregated escrow account until certain Escrow conditions are satisfied. These conditions concern (but are not limited to) Level 3’s acquisition of IPO solutions provider Global Crossing and the assumption of the notes by Level 3 Financing, another Level 3 subsidiary. After the release of the Escrow notes, the proceeds will be used to refinance Global Crossing’s debt.
Level 3 had received US$1.75bn in committed financing from BoA Merrill Lynch and Citigroup in order to fund the transaction. This financing package was composed of a US$1.1bn 12-month bridge loan and a US$650m six-year senior secured term loan. Level 3 expects to close its US$3bn acquisition of Global Crossing, which includes US$1.1bn in debt, by the end of 2011.
Mobile operator Cricket Communications made a private placement of US$400m in 7.75 per cent senior notes due in 2020.
The notes are priced at 99.193.
Cricket is the mobile brand of holding company Leap Wireless.
In a statement, Leap said Cricket intended to use the net proceeds of the placement for working capital and other general corporate purposes, which could include “accelerated deployment of nextgeneration LTE network technology and/or opportunistic acquisitions”.
Qwest Communications, a subsidiary of fixed-line operator CenturyLink, has agreed to sell US$575m in 7.375 per cent notes due in 2051. CenturyLink said Qwest had also granted the underwriters the option to acquire up to an additional US$86.25m of these notes to cover over-allotments.
