Hutchison Whampoa units offer to purchase up to $1.5 billion of four series of notes

By Angela McDaniels

Tacoma, Wash., May 7 - Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. announced the launch of a tender offer for up to $1.5 billion of notes issued by some of its subsidiaries.

Notes covered by the offer are Hutchison Whampoa Finance (CI) Ltd.'s $500 million 7.5% guaranteed notes due 2027, Hutchison Whampoa International (03/33) Ltd.'s $1.5 billion 7.45% guaranteed notes due 2033 and $2 billion 6.25% guaranteed notes due 2014 and Hutchison Whampoa International (03/13) Ltd.'s $3.5 billion 6.5% guaranteed notes due 2013.

The notes are listed in order of acceptance priority level, according to a company news release.

The tender offer is being conducted by Hutchison Whampoa subsidiaries Acelist Ltd. for the 7.5% notes, Daystep Ltd. for the 7.45% notes, Ideal Zone Ltd. for the 6.25% notes and Plan Bright Ltd. for the 6.5% notes.

The total consideration for each $1,000 principal amount of notes will be determined at 2 p.m. ET on June 4 and will equal the sum of the present value of $1,000 principal amount of notes on the settlement date plus the present value of all remaining scheduled payments of interest determined using the yield to maturity of the reference U.S. Treasury plus a fixed spread and minus accrued interest up to but excluding the settlement date.

In each case, the total consideration will include a $30 early tender premium for notes tendered by the early tender date.

The reference U.S. Treasury is the 4.5% Treasury note due May 15, 2038 for the 7.5% notes and 7.45% notes and the 1.875% Treasury note due April 30, 2014 for the 6.25% and 6.5% notes.

The spread is 381 basis points for the 7.5% notes, 333 bps for the 7.45% notes, 257 bps for the 6.25% notes and 251 bps for the 6.5% notes.

Holders will also receive accrued interest up to but excluding the settlement date.

The early tender date is 5 p.m. ET on May 21, the expiration date is midnight ET on June 8 and the settlement date is expected to be June 9.

Any notes purchased in the tender offer will not be cancelled. Hutchison Whampoa said the subsidiaries holding the offer have no current plans to transfer any purchased notes but may decide to do so in the future.

The dealer manager for the offer is Morgan Stanley (call Thomas O'Connor in New York at 800 624-1808 or 212 761-5384 or call Meng Gao in Hong Kong at 852 2848 5961).

The information agent is D.F. King & Co., Inc., (212 269-5550 for banks and brokers or 800 431-9645 for all others).

Hutchison Whampoa is a Hong Kong-based infrastructure conglomerate.

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