Orange to buy £617.94 million of four series in oversubscribed tender

By Susanna Moon

Chicago, April 10 – Orange SA said it accepted tenders for £617,938,000 of four series of notes in the cash offer that ended April 9.

The breakdown for the tendered notes is as follows:

• £87,826,000 of £285,811,000 outstanding (original issue amount of £750 million) 5% notes due May 2016;

• £230,664,000 of £500 million outstanding 8% notes due December 2017;

• £211,848,000 of £450 million outstanding 7.25% notes due November 2020; and

• £87.6 million of £350 million outstanding 5.25% notes due December 2025.

The company accepted for purchase all of the first three series of notes with no proration and bought the 5.25% notes using a proration factor of 0.55, according to a company notice.

Pricing was set April 10 using a reference security plus a fixed yield as follows:

• 104.427 for the 5% notes using the 2% U.K. Treasury gilt due January 2016 plus a spread of 45 bps with a reference yield of 0.399%;

• 117.82 for the 8% notes using the 1% U.K. Treasury gilt due September 2017 plus 62 bps with a reference yield of 0.587%;

• 128.137 for the 7.25% notes using the 3.75% U.K. Treasury gilt due September 2020 plus 70 bps with a reference yield of 1.172%; and

• 124.269 for the 5.25% notes using the 5% U.K. Treasury gilt due March 2025 plus 98 bps with a reference yield of 1.611%.

Orange will also pay accrued interest to the settlement date of April 14.

The company was tendering for up to £500 million but said at the outset that it could opt to lift the tender cap. The offer began March 31.

The company previously said that the purpose of the offer was to smooth its debt maturity profile and manage upcoming redemptions.

The dealer managers are BNP Paribas (+44 20 7595 8668 or liability.management@bnpparibas.com) and Royal Bank of Scotland (+44 20 7085 5991 or liabilitymanagement@rbs.com).

The information agents are BNP Paribas Securities Services, Luxembourg Branch (+352 2696 62301 or LU_BP2S_OFFER@bnpparibas.com) and BNP Paribas Securities Services (+33 1 55 77 61 60, fax +33 1 57 43 31 38, paris.bp2s.ost.dom.gis@bnpparibas.com). BNP Paribas Securities Services, Luxembourg Branch is also the tender agent.

The telecommunications company (previously France Telecom) is based in Paris.

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