The tender offer for bonds launched by France Telecom closed with EUR 1.963 billion of orders received representing a hit rate of 36% of the total targeted bonds (4.625% January 2012, 4.375% February 2012 and 7.25% January 2013).
According to its original goal, France Telecom has limited the amount of bonds bought back to EUR 1 billion (EUR 160 million due January 2012, EUR 416 million due February 2012 and EUR 424 million due January 2013).
In addition, France Telecom has completed the refinancing of this EUR 1 billion tender with the placement today of a EUR 750 million 10-year bond. This placement followed the replacement of November 16 of a GBP 250 million 40-year bond exchanged into EUR at 4.46%.
This tender offer and the two new placements were executed in line with the liability management strategy started by the Group last year with, the early redemption in September 2010 through a make-whole call of its 7.75%-USD bonds. These were supposed to reach maturity in March 2011
Société Générale, Crédit Suisse and BNP Paribas served as bookrunners of the EUR bond issue while Société Générale and BNP Paribas served as dealer managers of the tender offer.
