APN News&Media Ltd, owner of The New Zealand Herald, has set the size of a sale of five-year bonds at $100 million, which is less than it was seeking.APN Media NZ, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of APN, was seeking to sell $150 million of bonds ma
APN News&Media Ltd, owner of The New Zealand Herald, has set the size of a sale of five-year bonds at $100 million, which is less than it was seeking.
APN Media NZ, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of APN, was seeking to sell $150 million of bonds maturing on March 15, 2016, with an option to accept oversubscriptions of up to a further $50 million.
It said today that it has accepted firm commitments for the sale of $100m of the bonds after a bookbuild closed earlier today. The bonds will have a minimum interest rate of 7.8 percent per annum. The actual rate will be set on December 14. The bonds are expected to trade on the NZDX market. The bonds will be marketed to retail New Zealand investors between November 15 and December 10.
"The recently announced successful banking extensions have given us great flexibility in our funding options. With this flexibility in mind, and having regard to recent market movements in interest rates, we have decided to limit the minimum interest rate to 7.8 percent and accepted the $100m in offers as this is sufficient to satisfy our funding diversification objectives," said Peter Myers, APN News&Media's chief financial officer.
APN was pleased with the result of its inaugural bond issue to New Zealand investors, he said.
"APN Media Bonds provide investors an opportunity to participate in a company with significant operations in, and commitment to, the New Zealand market," he said.
The bonds are unsecured, unsubordinated fixed-rate debt obligations which rank pari passu with APN's bank facilities. The bonds have a negative pledge prohibiting creation of security over assets other than certain permitted security interests.
ANZ National Bank Ltd is the organising participant and a joint lead manager for the offer of the bonds. Bank of New Zealand, Forsyth Barr Ltd and Goldman Sachs&Partners New Zealand Ltd are the other joint lead managers for the offer of bonds.
