Turk Telekom prices $500 million of notes; spreads improve; LatAm, Africa quiet

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, Feb. 21 – Emerging markets debt market players were eyeing pricing of the Turk Telekomunikasyon AS dollar-denominated bonds early Thursday that were being talked at a 7 1/8% to 7¼% yield for a six-year note of $500 million size.

Later the Turk Telekom deal priced with a 6 7/8% coupon at 99.396. Pricing was tight to guidance and initial price talk in the 7 3/8% yield area.

Order books at the time of guidance were in excess of $2 billion.

The deal was “probably about 25 basis points tighter since announcement. It’s going very well,” a London-based market source said at the time of guidance.

The Rule 144A and Regulation S deal was sold via joint bookrunners BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets, ING Bank NV, MUFG Securities EMEA plc and Societe Generale CIB.

The issuer is an Ankara, Turkey-based telecommunications company.

The new issue calendar is not as robust as it was last year at this time. Latin America and Africa has been radio silent in contrast to this time last year when a good mix of sovereign and corporate Latin America bond issuers were on the forward calendar and then priced, and Kenya was prepping a dual-tranche of 10-year and 30-year notes.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.