| Wind Telecommunications |
| Size: |
€6.6 billion (senior secured bonds and loan facility) |
| Date: |
November 18 |
| Leads: |
Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank |
| Coupons: |
7.375% and 7.25% |
|
The company faced several headwinds. Despite entering a 20th successive quarter of revenue growth and the early repayment of a €336 million loan in January, Wind’s parent company, Weather Investments, part of the Orascom Group, had announced a planned merger with US-listed Russian telecom operator VimpelCom two weeks previously. "We had to do a bit of work with investors and lenders to focus them on the asset and say whatever happens upstairs you don’t care, you have a ring-fenced financing, it’s not really going to affect you,’’ says Karim Nasr, corporate finance officer at Weather Investments. Less than 10 days later Wind began its roadshow amid the Irish debt crisis. There was a limited amount of funding that it could get from within Italy. It had originally thought it could get demand of about €3 billion, two-thirds from Italian lenders, €500 million from banks outside Italy and about €400 million from credit and CLO funds, says Nasr.
