Bharti Airtel has raised about $2 billion through the sale of dual currency bonds in the international market. The funds will be used for repayment and refinancing of existing foreign currency debt. Barclays, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, HSBC, JP Morgan and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint lead managers for the bond offering.
Bharti Airtel has raised capital through its wholly-owned subsidiary Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands). The bond issue comprises $1 billion 5.350 per cent senior notes due 2024 and Euro 750 million 3.375 per cent senior notes due 2021. The USD notes were oversubscribed eight times and saw participation by over 550 investors, whereas the Euro bonds were oversubscribed 5.3 times and saw participation by over 400 investors.
The USD notes have been priced at 270 basis points over the 10-year USD Treasury with a fixed coupon of 5.350 per cent per annum to yield 5.361 per cent. Further, the Euro notes have been priced at 225 basis points over seven-year EUR mid swaps with a fixed coupon of 3.375 per cent per annum to yield 3.498 per cent.
The company has stated that this is a first-ever dual currency issuance by an Indian company and also the largest-ever fund raising exercise at a single time by an Indian issuer. With the latest fund raising exercise, Bharti Airtel has fully refinanced the original $9 billion credit facility and also taken care of all near-term securities. The net debt of the company at the end of March 31, 2014 stood at Rs 605.41 billion.
Earlier, in March 2014, the company had raised about Rs 24.53 billion through issue of bonds in the Swiss market. Prior to that, in December 2013, Bharti Airtel had raised Rs 63.50 billion through Euro bond issue.
