Wendel buys back €569 million of four series of notes in tender offer

By Angela McDaniels

Tacoma, Wash., Oct. 18 – Wendel SA repurchased €569 million of notes for €635 million in its tender offer, according to a company notice.

The company said it repurchased

• €127 million principal amount of its €634.4 million 4.375% bonds due Aug. 9, 2017 for €131.5 million, leaving €507.4 million outstanding after the settlement date;

• €150.2 million principal amount of its €500 million 6.75% bonds due April 20, 2018 for €165.4 million, leaving €349.8 million outstanding;

• €101.5 million principal amount of its €313.5 million 5.875% bonds due Sept. 17, 2019 for €118.9 million, leaving €212 million outstanding; and

• €190.5 million principal amount of its €400 million 3.75% notes due Jan. 21, 2021 for €219.2 million, leaving €209.5 million outstanding.

The tender offer ended at 10 a.m. ET on Oct. 17.

As previously reported, the total tender consideration in the offer was subject to a cap of €750 million.

Before announcing the final amount of bonds accepted, the company said the indicative tender prorating factors would be 100% for each series of notes.

Pricing for the 3.75% bonds will be set on Oct. 18 using a fixed spread of 30 basis points over the 2021 interpolated mid-swap rate.

For each of the other series of notes, the tender price will be determined by reference to a tender yield at or around the pricing time.

Assuming an Oct. 20 settlement date, the company expects the tender price to be 103.512 for the 4.375% notes, 110.116 for the 6.75% notes and 117.094 for the 5.875% notes. The final tender prices will be announced on Oct. 18.

The company also will pay accrued interest up to but excluding the settlement date.

Notes tendered in the offer will be canceled.

The company said it successfully placed €300 million of 1% bonds due April 2023 last week.

These two transactions have enabled Wendel to reduce the average cost of its bond debt to less than 3% on average from 3.5% as of the end of August and reduce its gross debt to €3.38 billion. The average maturity of its debt as of the settlement date will be 4.7 years.

Societe Generale (+33 1 42 13 32 40 or liability.management@sgcib.com) is the global coordinator and a joint dealer manager. BNP Paribas (44 20 7595 8668 or liability.management@bnpparibas.com) is a joint dealer manager.

The tender agent for the 4.375% notes is Lucid Issuer Services Ltd. (+44 20 7704 0880 or wendel@lucid-is.com). The tender agent for the other notes is Societe Generale Securities Services (+33 2 51 85 52 43 or nantes.gis-op-titres@sgss.socgen.com). Lucid Issuer Services is also acting as information agent.

Wendel is an investment firm based in Paris.

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