Stagecoach to raise £400m via bond issue
LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Transport group Stagecoach is raising £400m via a bond issue to spend on "general corporate purposes", including the repayment of existing debt. The 10-year bonds will have an annual coupon of 4% and should be issued on 29 September, the company said.
The joint (NasdaqCM: JYNT - news) bookrunners for the issue are Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) , BNP Paribas (Xetra: 887771 - news) and HSBC. In addition, Stagecoach said it had extended its £535m bi-lateral bank facilities to October 2020, which also extends the average duration of the group's debt.
Stagecoach added that it intends to review its options for the existing £400m of 5.75% bonds due to mature in December 2016.
Finance director Ross Paterson said the bond issue, together with the one-year extension of the bank facilities, ensures that the group "continues to have an appropriate mix of long-term debt enabling it to plan and invest with some certainty".