Indebted Spanish operator Telefonica has reduced its net debt by executing a swap of its preference shares for a combination of equity and debt.
In a regulatory statement the company said just over 97% of holders of the preferred securities took up the…
Indebted Spanish operator Telefonica has reduced its net debt by executing a swap of its preference shares for a combination of equity and debt.
In a regulatory statement the company said just over 97% of holders of the preferred securities took up the offer, knocking €776m off of Telefonica’s substantial debt pile.
The proposition was put forward by the Madrid-headquartered telco at the end of October.
It said at the time that it planned to place a €1.2bn bond, which takes the form of unsecured debentures, and issue €800m of existing treasury shares in a debt for equity swap as part of a share buyback scheme.
Had all the holders of the preferred stock taken up the offer Telefonica would have raised €800m.
The transaction will take place today with the debentures to be traded from tomorrow and the completion of the share sale is set for 4 December.
In its Q3 results Telefonica revealed net debt of €56bn.
