Colonial’s French arm SFL said on Friday that it has raised €500 mln with the issue of seven-year bond with an annual coupon of 1.5%, maturing on 5 June 2027.
The issue was oversubscribed with demand exceeded four times the issue volume. The bonds were placed with a broad base of European investors, primarily in France, the UK and Germany, with established profiles, such as insurance companies and investment funds.
The new issue will be used for general corporate purposes and will extend the average maturity of the Colonial Group’s debt which currently has an average maturity of 4.5 years with an average cost of 1.66%.
Colonial is mainly financed in the bond market, without mortgage guarantee, and accumulates a liquidity in excess of €2 bn.
‘Once more the markets have again shown their support and confidence in Colonial and its fundamentals, at a time of high complexity. With this issue we increase the security of the company. We are financed without mortgage guarantees and we have liquidity that covers any maturity until 2024,’ said Carmina Ganyet, corporate managing director of Colonial.
Earlier this month Colonial secured a new sustainability-linked loan of an amount of €200 mln during the coronavirus crisis. The unsecured financing facility expiring in 2022 was provided by lenders BBVA, BNP Paribas, CaixaBank and Natixis. CaixaBank has acted as Agent Bank and Sustainability Agent.
