Liberty Global’s German cable business Unitymedia has priced a multi-currency high-yield bond at par to refinance existing debt.
It has issued €1bn (US$1.23bn) of 4% euro-denominated notes at a spread of 4bps over mid-swaps, and US$550m in 5%…
Liberty Global’s German cable business Unitymedia has priced a multi-currency high-yield bond at par to refinance existing debt.
It has issued €1bn (US$1.23bn) of 4% euro-denominated notes at a spread of 4bps over mid-swaps, and US$550m in 5% dollar-denominated notes at a spread of 271bps over treasuries, according to data published by Reuters.
Both tranches will mature in 2025.
Goldman Sachs, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, JP Morgan, Societe Generale and UBS are all reported to be bookrunners on the offering.
The offering comes off the back of recent rumours that Vodafone is holding internal discussions regarding a potential acquisition of Liberty Global.
This in turn has led to Liberty Global’s bonds rallying hard, according to IFR, creating the opportunity for a placement to capitalise on investors wanting to expose themselves to the potential upside of a Vodafone acquisition.
The US-backed cable group has a non-investment grade credit rating with Moody’s of Ba3, while Vodafone’s is Baa1.
Liberty Global has a market capitalisation of around US$41bn, while its net debt pile stood at US$41.1bn as of 30 September, following an acquisition spree over the past few years.
In 2012 Liberty Global closed the acquisition of Kabel BW and merged it into Unitymedia. This created Unitymedia Kabel BW, although the cableco is rebranding to Unitymedia again next year.
