Romanian telecom group RCS&RDS plans to issue EUR 1 bln bonds in 2020

RCS&RDS, one of the largest telecommunications operators in Romania, indirectly controlled by local investor Zoltan Teszari, is preparing to launch one or more bonds totaling up to EUR 1 bln in 2020, Profit.ro informed.

The company, which has a local business of RON 3.5 billion (EUR 730 million), had debts of EUR 1.1 bln at the end of 2018. The group is in talks for taking over the mobile telecommunication operations of Deutsche Telekom in Romania.

Data consulted by Profit.ro shows that the bonds will have a fixed or variable interest rate, as the case may be, and their maturity will not exceed 10 years.

At the end of last year, according to public data, the company was carrying debts of RON 5.44 bln (about EUR 1.1 bln), up from RON 5.02 bln one year earlier.

The non-convertible securities will be registered, secured or not, as the case may be, with or without discount, with a nominal value of at least EUR 100,000, governed by any applicable law, including the law of Romania, New York or the law of England and Wales.

The company also launched, in 2013, a bond in the amount of EUR 450 mln, to refinance existing debts. Later, in 2016, it refinanced the group through a new bond issue of EUR 350 mln and a syndicated loan of up to RON 1.69 bln (EUR 375 mln). In August 2019, Digi Communications, the main shareholder of RCS&RDS, borrowed EUR 150 mln from a bank syndicate, after issuing EUR 200 mln worth of new bonds on the Irish Stock Exchange on top of an existing EUR 350 mln issue.

(Photo source: the company)