Demand for Nornickel Eurobonds tops $2 bln as investors make over 110 bids - VTB Capital
MOSCOW. Oct 22 (Interfax) - Demand for the new five-year Eurobonds of Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel) exceeded $2 billion, with investors submitting more than 110 bids, the head of debt capital markets at VTB Capital, Andrei Solovyev told Interfax.
Nornickel raised $750 million at 3.375% with the placement of the five-year Eurobonds on Monday. VTB Capital was one of the organizers of the offering.
The initial yield guidance was about 3.625%, which was later lowered to 3.375%-3.5%, and finally set at 3.30%-3.375%.
"The order book exceeded $2 billion at its peak. More than 110 bids from investors were submitted as part of the deal. The strong demand from investors made it possible to increase the size of the transaction from $500 million to $750 million, lower the price parameters of the deal three times and place the bonds with a final yield of 3.375%," Solovyev said.
The company managed to place the bonds at a lower coupon than all of its previous Eurobond issues in dollars, he said.
Nornickel reduced its net debt by 24% to $5.357 billion in the first half of 2019. The net debt to EBITDA ratio dropped to 0.8 as of June 30, 2019.