Japanese telco Softbank has raised US$3.3bn in 2020 senior notes, up from the US$2bn initially planned, following strong investor demand.
The facility is split between US$2.485bn worth of 4.5% senior notes and €625m (US$817m) worth of 4.625% senior…
Japanese telco Softbank has raised US$3.3bn in 2020 senior notes, up from the US$2bn initially planned, following strong investor demand.
The facility is split between US$2.485bn worth of 4.5% senior notes and €625m (US$817m) worth of 4.625% senior notes. Investors across the US, Europe and Asia participated in the bond offering.
It is understood that Deutsche Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Agricole, Mizuho, Morgan Stanley and Nomura acted as bookrunners on the dollar tranche while Deutsche Bank, Credit Agricole, Mizuho and Nomura were joint bookrunners on the euro tranche.
Moody’s gave a ‘Baa3’ to the offering while Standard & Poor’s assigned a ‘BBB’. S&P also said it is “likely to downgrade the rating [of the company] to BB+ if the acquisition of Sprint Nextel proceeds.”
Proceeds of the transaction are expected to be used to part-finance the acquisition of US giant Sprint, refinance existing debt and for general corporate purposes.
The successful offering comes as Softbank’s US$20.1bn bid to buy Sprint is being challenged by DTH operator Dish Network’s US$25.5bn counter offer.
It is not yet known whether Softbank will choose to raise its offer, stick to it or walk away from the deal. However, the Japanese company said in a statement a few days ago that it is confident its bid offers “Sprint shareholders superior short and long term benefits to Dish’s highly conditional preliminary proposal.”
