Airtel Africa Plc has announced the successful signing of a new $500million credit facility with a consortium of banks, in a bid to partially refinance its €750million Euro dominated bond due 20th of May, 2021.
This is according to a disclosure signed by the Group Company’s Secretary, Simon O’Hara and seen by Nairametrics.
According to the disclosure, the new facility consists of a combination of a revolving credit facility and term loans with tenor of up to 4 years. It also has prepayment flexibilities that will enable the Group to maximize the efficiency of its capital structure with the free cash flows and cash receipts expected over the next 12 months.
The Group also noted that while the new loan will be used to refinance its €750million bond commitments which translate to about (c. $880 million), the remaining balance of the Euro dominated bond will be repaid with existing Group cash to reduce gross debt and associated interest charges.
According to the notice, the banks which participated in the facility include a diverse group of existing global relationship banks, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Citibank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank and two Indian relationship banks, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
What you should know:
- Airtel Africa had earlier announced an agreement with Mastercard, for the latter to invest $100 million in its Mobile Commerce BV (Airtel Mobile Commerce BV).
- On the other hand, the Group in about a month ago announced that it reached an agreement with Helios Tower Plc to sell its (Airtel) telecommunications tower companies in Madagascar and Malawi for a gross value of about $93.7million.
