VimpelCom fully places 10 bln rubles in third-series bonds
MOSCOW. July 14 (Interfax) - VimpelCom-Invest, a SPV company for No. 2 cellular provider VimpelCom , fully placed 10 billion rubles worth of third-series bonds on the MICEX Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the company said in a statement.
VTB Bank and Raiffeisenbank arranged the placement.
The first coupon was set at 15.2% pa.
It was earlier reported that the initial coupon corridor was set at 15.5%-16.5%. During the issue's marketing, this corridor was brought to 15.5%-16%.
The bonds will circulate for five years. The rates of the second through fourth coupons will be set equal to the first.
The Federal Financial Market Service (FFMS) registered the issue in early April along with another two series each totaling 10 billion rubles.
VimpelCom plans to use the proceeds to refinance existing foreign debt and for business development.
The "big three" mobile provider has a first series of bonds in circulation worth 10 billion rubles, which the company placed in July 2008. The rate of the first coupon was set at 9.05% annually. The bonds are for five years with an offer to purchase the bonds at par after 18 months.
VimpelCom had $6.73 billion in debt at the end of the first quarter, down from $7.53 billion at the beginning of the year. VimpelCom retired $217 million in loan participation notes (LPN) in mid-June.
The company's cash position amounted to 32.86 billion rubles ($966 million) at the end of the first quarter, up from 26.87 billion rubles at the beginning of the year.