February 23 (SeeNews) - State-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) told SeeNews on Friday it plans to refinance its 500 million euro ($614.9 million) bond maturing in November by placing a new bond issue.
"We confirm BEH's intention to place a new bond issue in order to refinance its bond issue due in November 2018," the company said in an emailed statement.
It gave no further details.
BEH's 500 million euro bond carries an annual coupon of 4.25% with coupon payment due once per year. The issue was listed on the Irish Stock Exchange in November 2013.
Last week, Fitch Ratings upgraded BEH's long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings (IDR) as well as its foreign currency senior unsecured rating to 'BB' from 'BB-'.
"The upgrade follows improvement in BEH's standalone credit profile after both recovery and greater visibility in earnings as well as the publication of Fitch's new Government-Related Entities Rating Criteria (GRE criteria), which we have applied in our assessment of BEH's ratings," Fitch said.
($ = 0.8131 euro)