Sprint Nextel has completed an underwritten public offering of US$1.5bn 8-year senior notes priced at par.
The notes carry a coupon of 7% and mature in 2020. A second tranche of 10-year notes previously announced by Sprint has been scrapped, according…
Sprint Nextel has completed an underwritten public offering of US$1.5bn 8-year senior notes priced at par.
The notes carry a coupon of 7% and mature in 2020. A second tranche of 10-year notes previously announced by Sprint has been scrapped, according to an SEC filing.
Sprint said it may use the proceeds to repay debt, expand and modernise its network, and to potentially fund Clearwire Corporation and its subsidiary Clearwire Communications LLC.
In its Q2 results published in late July, Clearwire said it had enough funding to last “at least 12 months”. On 8 August it was speculated that Dish Network may have close to US$400m invested in Clearwire debt (full coverage here).
The joint book-running managers for the offering are J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
S&P and Fitch both rated the notes B+ while Moody’s assigned B3.
Sprint had been the majority shareholder in Clearwire until earlier this year, although it did not exercise all of its voting rights in order to avoid any risk of any cross default triggers on its debt. Since June it owns less than 50% of Clearwire shares.
