July 16 (SeeNews) - State-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) said on Friday that it successfully placed a seven-year Eurobond issue in the amount of 600 million euro ($708.1 million).
The Eurobond, which will be listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, has an annual interest rate of 2.45%, BEH said in a statement.
The proceeds raised from the issuance will be used to refinance a 550 million euro bond with 4.875% interest rate issued in 2016 which matures in August 2021, as well as for general corporate purposes, excluding coal-related activities, the company said.
"As investors’ interest was very strong, the bond was 2.3 times oversubscribed and the interest rate achieved is the lowest one since the company has been participating on the international financial markets," BEH also said.
The achieved lower interest rate and longer tenor of the issue will help the company to further reduce its annual interest expenses and to optimize its debt repayments schedule over a longer period of time, BEH noted.
Earlier this week, Fitch Ratings assigned BEH's upcoming Eurobond an expected foreign-currency senior unsecured rating of 'BB(EXP)' with a recovery rating of 'RR4'.
($ = 0.8471 euro)