Singapore's SATS launches $500 mln bonds to refinance debt, cut costs

Sats

17/01/2024 01:14

SINGAPORE, Jan 17 (Reuters) - SATS Ltd  SATS.SI , a
Singapore-based ground handling and catering provider, on
Wednesday launched and priced $500 million in bonds to refinance
existing debt and lower its borrowing costs. 
    The bonds, due Jan. 23, 2029, were priced at 4.828% and
converted into Euros via a cross currency swap to achieve a
fixed rate of 3.498% annually to match the currency of existing
bridge loans to hedge its foreign currency exposure, SATS said
in a statement.
    The bonds was 3.6 times oversubscribed by "high quality
global investors", Manfred Seah, SATS' chief financial officer,
said in the statement. 
    The refinancing exercise will result in interest savings of
S$8.8 million ($6.56 million) annually, SATS said, adding that
proceeds will refinance part of its existing 1 billion euro 
($1.09 billion) bridge loans maturing in May 2024.
    The bonds, which have been assigned a senior unsecured
rating of "A3" by Moody's Investors Service, was the first
issuance of SATS' $3 billion multicurrency debt issuance
programme established on Nov. 17. 
    BNP Paribas  BNPP.PA , DBS  DBSM.SI , MUFG  8306.T , OCBC
 OCBC.SI  and HSBC  HSBA.L  are the joint lead managers and
joint bookrunners for the bonds, according to the statement.
    
    ($1 = 1.3423 Singapore dollars)
    ($1 = 0.9196 euros)

 (Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Christian
Schmollinger)
 ((Yantoultra.Ngui@thomsonreuters.com;))