Obbligazioni societarie Monitor bond Telecom Europa VIII (Gennaio 2010 - Dicembre 2013)
- Creatore Discussione Imark
- Data di Inizio
Alobar
So di non sapere...
Default per Wind Hellas
(venerdì, 1 ottobre 2010 - 12:18) Il Sole 24 Ore ha riportato la notizia che per Wind Hellas, la controllata greca di Wind, è scattata l’insolvenza. Di conseguenza, l’agenzia S&P ha tagliato a “D” (default) il rating sul debito della società. Il quotidiano finanziario ha segnalato che a metà ottobre Wind Hellas deve rimborsare un bond di 355 milioni di euro.
Default per Wind Hellas (Il Sole 24 Ore)
(venerdì, 1 ottobre 2010 - 12:18) Il Sole 24 Ore ha riportato la notizia che per Wind Hellas, la controllata greca di Wind, è scattata l’insolvenza. Di conseguenza, l’agenzia S&P ha tagliato a “D” (default) il rating sul debito della società. Il quotidiano finanziario ha segnalato che a metà ottobre Wind Hellas deve rimborsare un bond di 355 milioni di euro.
Default per Wind Hellas (Il Sole 24 Ore)
Alobar
So di non sapere...
Wind Hellas Bondholders Favored Over Telenor to Acquire Company
(Sep 30, 2010 12:00 AM GMT+0200) Wind Hellas Telecommunications SA’s senior-secured bondholders are in the lead to acquire Greece’s third-largest mobile phone operator, said three people with knowledge of the matter.
While a bid by Telenor ASA, the Nordic region’s largest phone company, is preferred by lenders of Wind Hellas, bondholders aren’t satisfied with the offer, terms of which couldn’t be determined, said the people, who declined to be identified because a final decision hasn’t been made.
Wind Hellas, which was bought out of bankruptcy less than 12 months ago by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, is controlled by creditors after it deferred payments on a 250 million-euro ($341 million) revolving credit facility in June and missed an interest payment on its 1.2 billion euros of floating-rate notes. Wind and its adviser, Morgan Stanley, will pick a preferred bidder by Oct. 14, the people said.
An offer by Sawiris isn’t considered adequate, one of the people said. Other bidders had included Info-Quest SA, Greece’s No. 1 computer maker, Los Angeles-based Saban Capital Group Inc. and Argo Capital Partners Fund Ltd., which has a stake in Athens-based On Telecoms, another person said.
The process isn’t over and the bondholders may not end up the preferred bidders, the people said.
Argo Capital declined to comment yesterday while Sawiris didn’t respond to messages. A Telenor spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a call seeking comment. Athens-based Info-Quest spokeswoman Fani Kirkou didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Creditors took control of the business in June after Wind Hellas missed debt payments.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-...ed-over-telenor-to-acquire-phone-company.html
(Sep 30, 2010 12:00 AM GMT+0200) Wind Hellas Telecommunications SA’s senior-secured bondholders are in the lead to acquire Greece’s third-largest mobile phone operator, said three people with knowledge of the matter.
While a bid by Telenor ASA, the Nordic region’s largest phone company, is preferred by lenders of Wind Hellas, bondholders aren’t satisfied with the offer, terms of which couldn’t be determined, said the people, who declined to be identified because a final decision hasn’t been made.
Wind Hellas, which was bought out of bankruptcy less than 12 months ago by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, is controlled by creditors after it deferred payments on a 250 million-euro ($341 million) revolving credit facility in June and missed an interest payment on its 1.2 billion euros of floating-rate notes. Wind and its adviser, Morgan Stanley, will pick a preferred bidder by Oct. 14, the people said.
An offer by Sawiris isn’t considered adequate, one of the people said. Other bidders had included Info-Quest SA, Greece’s No. 1 computer maker, Los Angeles-based Saban Capital Group Inc. and Argo Capital Partners Fund Ltd., which has a stake in Athens-based On Telecoms, another person said.
The process isn’t over and the bondholders may not end up the preferred bidders, the people said.
Argo Capital declined to comment yesterday while Sawiris didn’t respond to messages. A Telenor spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a call seeking comment. Athens-based Info-Quest spokeswoman Fani Kirkou didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Creditors took control of the business in June after Wind Hellas missed debt payments.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-...ed-over-telenor-to-acquire-phone-company.html
Alobar
So di non sapere...
"Wind" diventa russa. Nasce il quinto colosso delle Tlc
Fusione tra l'egiziana "Weather Investments", proprietaria dell'azienda di telefonia italiana, e "VimpelCom". Ricavi operativi netti per 21,5 miliardi di dollari e presenza in 20 paesi del mondo con 174 milioni di utenti. L'accordo sarà pienamente operativo entro il 2011
ROMA - Wind, la società di telecomunicazioni attiva nel campo della telefonia mobile e fissa, diventa russa. "Weather Investments", del magnate egiziano Naguib Sawiris e "VimpelCom", la mega-azienda russa di telefonia, hanno sancito la loro fusione, facendo nascere così il quinto gruppo mondiale delle telecomunicazioni per numero di utenti (174 milioni in 20 paesi), con ricavi operativi netti per 21,5 miliardi di dollari.
Jo Lunder, presidente di WimpelCom, sostiene che l'accordo "crea una società di primo piano nel panorama mondiale delle telecomunicazioni con attività di rilievo in Europa, Asia e Africa. Il Board è convinto che questa operazione creerà valore a lungo termine per tutti i nostri azionisti".
Le azioni di VimpelCom emesse a favore degli azionisti di Weather rappresenteranno il 20% dei diritti patrimoniali ed il 18,5% dei diritti di voto nel nuovo gruppo VimpelCom. In seguito all'emissione delle nuove azioni di VimpelCom, Telenor ASA, attraverso le proprie controllate Telenor Mobile Communications AS e Telenor East Invest AS, ed Altimo Holdings & Investments Limited, attraverso la controllata Altimo Cooperatief U.A., possiederanno rispettivamente il 31,7% ed il 31,4% dei diritti patrimoniali ed il 36,4% ed il 29,3% dei diritti di voto della nuova società.
Gli azionisti di minoranza di VimpelCom rappresenteranno il 17,0% dei diritti patrimoniali ed il 15,7% dei diritti di voto. E' previsto che Weather designi due membri del nuovo Board di VimpelCom, che sarà composto da undici membri, e che gli azionisti di maggioranza, Telenor ed Altimo, continuino a designare tre membri ciascuno. Il Board sarà infine completato da tre consiglieri che non saranno espressione di alcuno dei soci.
"Questa importante operazione conferma la qualità delle nostre società Orascom Telecom e Wind Italia, ed il valore significativo che abbiamo creato nel corso degli anni per i nostri azionisti", afferma Naguib Sawiris, presidente di Weather commentando l'accordo con VimpelCom. "Condividiamo con i nostri nuovi partner - aggiunge - la visione comune sulle prospettive entusiasmanti per la nostra nuova, ampliata e diversificata società di telecomunicazioni".
Sawiris farà parte del Supervisory Board di VimpelCom. Il magnate egiziano si è preoccupato, però, di tranquillizzare gli altri azionisti: "Sono convinto che i nostri azionisti di minoranza di Orascom Telecom potranno beneficiare delle ulteriori sinergie create dalla fusione delle due società, in particolare nel settore degli acquisiti, e dal rafforzamento complessivo dello stato patrimoniale di Orascom Telecom".
Dal canto suo, l'amministratore delegato di Vimpelcom, Alexander Izosimov, sottolinea la trasformazione che questa fusione porterà nelle due società: "Questa operazione offre ai nostri azionisti un'esposizione verso mercati con interessanti prospettive di crescita sia in Asia che in Africa e l'opportunità di diversificare ulteriormente la nostra fonte di ricavi in termini di geografia, di valuta e di caratteristiche del mercato". L'intesa, ad avviso di Izosimov, consente a VimpelCom "di sfruttare appieno le significative opportunità di forte crescita che vediamo nel mercato mobile dei servizi dati e di sfruttare l'esperienza che già esiste in questo settore all'interno di Wind Italia e in altre parti del gruppo Weather".
Al completamento dell'operazione, prevista entro il 2011, Vimpelcom avrà, via Weather, il 51,7% di Orascom Telecom e il 100% dell'italiana Wind. Gli azionisti di Weather riceveranno più di 325,6 milioni di azioni Vimpelcom di nuova emissione, 1,8 miliardi di dollari in contanti, oltre ad alcune attività che verranno scisse da Orascom e da Wind.
"Wind" diventa russa Nasce il quinto colosso delle Tlc - Repubblica.it
Fusione tra l'egiziana "Weather Investments", proprietaria dell'azienda di telefonia italiana, e "VimpelCom". Ricavi operativi netti per 21,5 miliardi di dollari e presenza in 20 paesi del mondo con 174 milioni di utenti. L'accordo sarà pienamente operativo entro il 2011
ROMA - Wind, la società di telecomunicazioni attiva nel campo della telefonia mobile e fissa, diventa russa. "Weather Investments", del magnate egiziano Naguib Sawiris e "VimpelCom", la mega-azienda russa di telefonia, hanno sancito la loro fusione, facendo nascere così il quinto gruppo mondiale delle telecomunicazioni per numero di utenti (174 milioni in 20 paesi), con ricavi operativi netti per 21,5 miliardi di dollari.
Jo Lunder, presidente di WimpelCom, sostiene che l'accordo "crea una società di primo piano nel panorama mondiale delle telecomunicazioni con attività di rilievo in Europa, Asia e Africa. Il Board è convinto che questa operazione creerà valore a lungo termine per tutti i nostri azionisti".
Le azioni di VimpelCom emesse a favore degli azionisti di Weather rappresenteranno il 20% dei diritti patrimoniali ed il 18,5% dei diritti di voto nel nuovo gruppo VimpelCom. In seguito all'emissione delle nuove azioni di VimpelCom, Telenor ASA, attraverso le proprie controllate Telenor Mobile Communications AS e Telenor East Invest AS, ed Altimo Holdings & Investments Limited, attraverso la controllata Altimo Cooperatief U.A., possiederanno rispettivamente il 31,7% ed il 31,4% dei diritti patrimoniali ed il 36,4% ed il 29,3% dei diritti di voto della nuova società.
Gli azionisti di minoranza di VimpelCom rappresenteranno il 17,0% dei diritti patrimoniali ed il 15,7% dei diritti di voto. E' previsto che Weather designi due membri del nuovo Board di VimpelCom, che sarà composto da undici membri, e che gli azionisti di maggioranza, Telenor ed Altimo, continuino a designare tre membri ciascuno. Il Board sarà infine completato da tre consiglieri che non saranno espressione di alcuno dei soci.
"Questa importante operazione conferma la qualità delle nostre società Orascom Telecom e Wind Italia, ed il valore significativo che abbiamo creato nel corso degli anni per i nostri azionisti", afferma Naguib Sawiris, presidente di Weather commentando l'accordo con VimpelCom. "Condividiamo con i nostri nuovi partner - aggiunge - la visione comune sulle prospettive entusiasmanti per la nostra nuova, ampliata e diversificata società di telecomunicazioni".
Sawiris farà parte del Supervisory Board di VimpelCom. Il magnate egiziano si è preoccupato, però, di tranquillizzare gli altri azionisti: "Sono convinto che i nostri azionisti di minoranza di Orascom Telecom potranno beneficiare delle ulteriori sinergie create dalla fusione delle due società, in particolare nel settore degli acquisiti, e dal rafforzamento complessivo dello stato patrimoniale di Orascom Telecom".
Dal canto suo, l'amministratore delegato di Vimpelcom, Alexander Izosimov, sottolinea la trasformazione che questa fusione porterà nelle due società: "Questa operazione offre ai nostri azionisti un'esposizione verso mercati con interessanti prospettive di crescita sia in Asia che in Africa e l'opportunità di diversificare ulteriormente la nostra fonte di ricavi in termini di geografia, di valuta e di caratteristiche del mercato". L'intesa, ad avviso di Izosimov, consente a VimpelCom "di sfruttare appieno le significative opportunità di forte crescita che vediamo nel mercato mobile dei servizi dati e di sfruttare l'esperienza che già esiste in questo settore all'interno di Wind Italia e in altre parti del gruppo Weather".
Al completamento dell'operazione, prevista entro il 2011, Vimpelcom avrà, via Weather, il 51,7% di Orascom Telecom e il 100% dell'italiana Wind. Gli azionisti di Weather riceveranno più di 325,6 milioni di azioni Vimpelcom di nuova emissione, 1,8 miliardi di dollari in contanti, oltre ad alcune attività che verranno scisse da Orascom e da Wind.
"Wind" diventa russa Nasce il quinto colosso delle Tlc - Repubblica.it
saverio1973
BOND SUB.
Mi viene spontanea una domanda. La fusione avrà una ripercussioone positiva sui bond WIND ITALIA?
Imark
Forumer storico
Mi viene spontanea una domanda. La fusione avrà una ripercussioone positiva sui bond WIND ITALIA?
Ha aggiunto ancora qualcosa ai prezzi precedenti al deal, con i rendimenti sul 2017 al minimo storico del 9,25% lordo alla chiusura OTC di ieri, e quelli sul 2015 al 9,7% lordo circa, sempre OTC ieri...
Il merger consentirà a Telenor di deconsolidare la partecipazione in VimpelCom, dato che tale società, per effetto del merger, diventa una public company a tutti gli effetti, in cui nessuno degli azionisti ha una quota di controllo...
Imark
Forumer storico
Ottima questa Bloomberg sulle prospettive per il debito di Wimpelcom come effetto dell'operazione. La posto integralmente...
Vimpelcom Record-Low Yields Show Bondholders Supporting M&A: Russia Credit
OAO VimpelCom’s borrowing costs are falling to record lows, a sign investors will support higher indebtedness to fund acquisitions as the Russian mobile-phone operator buys assets from Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris.
VimpelCom’s $1 billion of bonds due April 2013 traded at a yield of 4.77 percent yesterday, the lowest since the notes were issued in April 2008 and down from 7.41 percent in May, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield is 143 basis points, or 1.43 percentage point, higher than Russian government bonds due 2015, the smallest premium in two months.
Investor sentiment is shifting after the global credit crisis and the country’s worst recession since the Soviet era drove Russian companies to cut foreign acquisitions by 73 percent this year to a five-year low, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Foreign takers by Russian firms totaled $3.24 billion this year, lagging behind the biggest emerging markets as acquisitions from India surged fourfold to $56 billion and Brazilian companies spent $41 billion, the data show.
“We might see more Russian corporations coming out to snap up emerging-market assets in other, faster growing countries,” said Peter Varga, who helps manage the equivalent of about $171 million of emerging-market corporate bonds at Erste Sparinvest KAG in Vienna. Varga said he increased VimpelCom bonds to 4 percent of his fund on Aug. 18, when the yield on the notes due in 2013 was 5.59 percent. “VimpelCom can take on some debt and still be in the comfort zone,” he said.
Weather, Wind
VimpelCom of Moscow and Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris agreed yesterday to merge their phone assets in a transaction valued at about $6.5 billion.
VimpelCom’s bonds rallied as the Sawiris merger is poised to turn the Russian company into the world’s fifth-largest mobile phone operator, with 174 million subscribers, according to its statement yesterday. The enlarged company will have a market capitalization of $24 billion, up from $19 billion, according to the statement.
The Russian company will own the 51 percent stake in Cairo- based Orascom Telecom Holding SAE held by Sawiris’s Weather Investments SpA along with all of Italian mobile operator Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA. Weather shareholders will get 20 percent of the merged entity. The combined entities earned total revenue of $21.5 billion in 2009, according to the statement yesterday.
VimpelCom shareholders will vote on the transaction by year-end and the company expects to complete the deal in the first quarter.
‘Strategic Move’
“This is really a strategic move since this would create a large mobile company that will cover a wide range of still unpenetrated markets in the Middle East, North Africa, the CIS and the eastern part of the world,” Sergey Dergachev, who helps manage $6 billion at Union Investments in Frankfurt, said in a phone interview. “ I do not expect a significant deterioration in VimpelCom’s credit profile.”
Gains in Russia’s dollar bonds due in 2020 yesterday reduced the yield seven basis points, or 0.07 percentage point, to 4.424 percent, the lowest level since they were sold in April. The yield on government ruble notes due August 2016 fell one basis point to 7.28 percent.
Default Swaps
The extra yield investors demand to hold Russian debt rather than U.S. Treasuries rose four basis points to 232, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI+ indexes. The difference compares with 151 for debt of similarly rated Mexico and 205 for Brazil, which is rated two steps lower at Baa3 by Moody’s.
The yield spread on Russian bonds is 46 basis points below the average for emerging markets, down from a 15-month high of 105 in February, according to JPMorgan indexes.
The cost of protecting Russian debt against non-payment for five years using credit-default swaps fell three basis points to 158, according to data provider CMA. The contracts pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a government or company fail to adhere to its debt agreements.
Credit-default swaps for Russia, rated Baa1 by Moody’s Investors Service, its third-lowest investment grade rating, cost the same as contracts for Turkey, which is rated four levels lower at Ba2. Russia swaps cost as much as 40 basis points less on April 20.
Ruble Gains
The ruble climbed 0.1 percent to 30.4600 per dollar yesterday, its strongest level since Sept. 29. Non-deliverable forwards, or NDFs, which provide a guide to expectations of currency movements and interest rate differentials and allow companies to hedge against currency movements, show the ruble at 30.6831 per dollar in three months.
President Dmitry Medvedev said in November he wants to reduce the country’s “humiliating” reliance on commodities. The economy of Russia, the world’s biggest energy exporter, shrank by a record 7.9 percent last year after a 54 percent slump in oil prices in 2008.
VimpelCom Chief Executive Officer Alexander Izosimov said the deal will be “transformational” for the company. “It offers our shareholders exposure to attractive growth markets in both Asia and Africa and the opportunity to diversify further our revenue base in terms of geography, currency and market characteristics,” Izosimov said in a regulatory statement yesterday.
Sawiris said in a statement minority shareholders in Orascom Telecom will benefit from synergies created by the merger, “especially in the area of procurement, and by the overall strengthening and de-risking of the balance sheet.”
Rising Debt
VimpelCom’s debt will increase to 2.5 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization because of the acquisition, said Maxim Raskosnov, a banking analyst at Moscow- based investment bank Renaissance Capital. The current level is 1.45 times Ebitda, according to data compiled by Bloomberg for 2009.
Wind Italy had net debt of 8.29 billion euros ($11.4 billion) as of June 30, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Orascom Telecom owed $4.61 billion.
The deal is “risky” as it may saddle VimpelCom with an additional $12 billion of debt, taking the combined total to $17 billion, Konstantin Chernyshev, head of research at Moscow brokerage UralSib Financial Corp., said in an e-mailed report yesterday. “The upside of the potential deal is also questionable given the relatively weak position of Wind in its main Italian market, which is already saturated, as well as Orascom’s problems in Algeria, where the company has been charged with back-tax claims,” according to the report.
Tax Tangle
Orascom is entangled in a tax dispute in Algeria, which will be dealt with “in due course,” VimpelCom’s Izosimov said yesterday in a conference call with reporters. He and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will be in Algeria this week, he said.
Mikhail Galkin, the head of fixed-income research in Moscow at VTB Capital, the investment banking arm of VTB Group, recommends investors avoid increasing VimpelCom bond holdings. Reports from ratings companies will be “negative,” he said.
Carlos Winzer, a telecoms analyst at Moody’s in Madrid, and Michael O’Brien, a credit analyst at S&P in London, both declined to comment.
VimpelCom’s Amsterdam-based parent, VimpelCom Ltd., was formed by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group and Norway’s Telenor ASA to consolidate holdings in Russian and Ukrainian mobile-phone operators. The company is 39.6 percent- owned by Fornebu, Norway-based Telenor while Alfa’s Moscow-based Altimo unit controls 39.2 percent and minority shareholders own 21.2 percent.
VimpelCom bonds plunged in August following initial reports that the company was in talks with Sawiris, pushing the yield on the company’s bonds due in 2013 to their highest since July 21 at 5.93 percent.
‘Market Fears’
“The market fears have been allayed somewhat,” Sergey Kolesnikov, head of fixed income at Moscow brokerage Metropol IFC, said in a telephone interview. “VimpelCom realized the negative effect the deal was having on their bonds and shares and it looks like they will find a clever way to structure the deal so the debt doesn’t sit on their balance sheet.”
VimpelCom is rated Ba2 at Moody’s Investors Service, two levels below investment grade, and BB+ at Standard & Poor’s, the highest non-investment grade. Wind is ranked Ba3 at Moody’s, three levels below investment grade, and B+ at S&P, four levels short. Orascom Telecom Holding has a B2 rating at Moody’s, five below investment grade, and B- at S&P, six levels under.
Vimpelcom Record-Low Yields Show Bondholders Supporting M&A: Russia Credit
OAO VimpelCom’s borrowing costs are falling to record lows, a sign investors will support higher indebtedness to fund acquisitions as the Russian mobile-phone operator buys assets from Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris.
VimpelCom’s $1 billion of bonds due April 2013 traded at a yield of 4.77 percent yesterday, the lowest since the notes were issued in April 2008 and down from 7.41 percent in May, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield is 143 basis points, or 1.43 percentage point, higher than Russian government bonds due 2015, the smallest premium in two months.
Investor sentiment is shifting after the global credit crisis and the country’s worst recession since the Soviet era drove Russian companies to cut foreign acquisitions by 73 percent this year to a five-year low, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Foreign takers by Russian firms totaled $3.24 billion this year, lagging behind the biggest emerging markets as acquisitions from India surged fourfold to $56 billion and Brazilian companies spent $41 billion, the data show.
“We might see more Russian corporations coming out to snap up emerging-market assets in other, faster growing countries,” said Peter Varga, who helps manage the equivalent of about $171 million of emerging-market corporate bonds at Erste Sparinvest KAG in Vienna. Varga said he increased VimpelCom bonds to 4 percent of his fund on Aug. 18, when the yield on the notes due in 2013 was 5.59 percent. “VimpelCom can take on some debt and still be in the comfort zone,” he said.
Weather, Wind
VimpelCom of Moscow and Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris agreed yesterday to merge their phone assets in a transaction valued at about $6.5 billion.
VimpelCom’s bonds rallied as the Sawiris merger is poised to turn the Russian company into the world’s fifth-largest mobile phone operator, with 174 million subscribers, according to its statement yesterday. The enlarged company will have a market capitalization of $24 billion, up from $19 billion, according to the statement.
The Russian company will own the 51 percent stake in Cairo- based Orascom Telecom Holding SAE held by Sawiris’s Weather Investments SpA along with all of Italian mobile operator Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA. Weather shareholders will get 20 percent of the merged entity. The combined entities earned total revenue of $21.5 billion in 2009, according to the statement yesterday.
VimpelCom shareholders will vote on the transaction by year-end and the company expects to complete the deal in the first quarter.
‘Strategic Move’
“This is really a strategic move since this would create a large mobile company that will cover a wide range of still unpenetrated markets in the Middle East, North Africa, the CIS and the eastern part of the world,” Sergey Dergachev, who helps manage $6 billion at Union Investments in Frankfurt, said in a phone interview. “ I do not expect a significant deterioration in VimpelCom’s credit profile.”
Gains in Russia’s dollar bonds due in 2020 yesterday reduced the yield seven basis points, or 0.07 percentage point, to 4.424 percent, the lowest level since they were sold in April. The yield on government ruble notes due August 2016 fell one basis point to 7.28 percent.
Default Swaps
The extra yield investors demand to hold Russian debt rather than U.S. Treasuries rose four basis points to 232, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI+ indexes. The difference compares with 151 for debt of similarly rated Mexico and 205 for Brazil, which is rated two steps lower at Baa3 by Moody’s.
The yield spread on Russian bonds is 46 basis points below the average for emerging markets, down from a 15-month high of 105 in February, according to JPMorgan indexes.
The cost of protecting Russian debt against non-payment for five years using credit-default swaps fell three basis points to 158, according to data provider CMA. The contracts pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a government or company fail to adhere to its debt agreements.
Credit-default swaps for Russia, rated Baa1 by Moody’s Investors Service, its third-lowest investment grade rating, cost the same as contracts for Turkey, which is rated four levels lower at Ba2. Russia swaps cost as much as 40 basis points less on April 20.
Ruble Gains
The ruble climbed 0.1 percent to 30.4600 per dollar yesterday, its strongest level since Sept. 29. Non-deliverable forwards, or NDFs, which provide a guide to expectations of currency movements and interest rate differentials and allow companies to hedge against currency movements, show the ruble at 30.6831 per dollar in three months.
President Dmitry Medvedev said in November he wants to reduce the country’s “humiliating” reliance on commodities. The economy of Russia, the world’s biggest energy exporter, shrank by a record 7.9 percent last year after a 54 percent slump in oil prices in 2008.
VimpelCom Chief Executive Officer Alexander Izosimov said the deal will be “transformational” for the company. “It offers our shareholders exposure to attractive growth markets in both Asia and Africa and the opportunity to diversify further our revenue base in terms of geography, currency and market characteristics,” Izosimov said in a regulatory statement yesterday.
Sawiris said in a statement minority shareholders in Orascom Telecom will benefit from synergies created by the merger, “especially in the area of procurement, and by the overall strengthening and de-risking of the balance sheet.”
Rising Debt
VimpelCom’s debt will increase to 2.5 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization because of the acquisition, said Maxim Raskosnov, a banking analyst at Moscow- based investment bank Renaissance Capital. The current level is 1.45 times Ebitda, according to data compiled by Bloomberg for 2009.
Wind Italy had net debt of 8.29 billion euros ($11.4 billion) as of June 30, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Orascom Telecom owed $4.61 billion.
The deal is “risky” as it may saddle VimpelCom with an additional $12 billion of debt, taking the combined total to $17 billion, Konstantin Chernyshev, head of research at Moscow brokerage UralSib Financial Corp., said in an e-mailed report yesterday. “The upside of the potential deal is also questionable given the relatively weak position of Wind in its main Italian market, which is already saturated, as well as Orascom’s problems in Algeria, where the company has been charged with back-tax claims,” according to the report.
Tax Tangle
Orascom is entangled in a tax dispute in Algeria, which will be dealt with “in due course,” VimpelCom’s Izosimov said yesterday in a conference call with reporters. He and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will be in Algeria this week, he said.
Mikhail Galkin, the head of fixed-income research in Moscow at VTB Capital, the investment banking arm of VTB Group, recommends investors avoid increasing VimpelCom bond holdings. Reports from ratings companies will be “negative,” he said.
Carlos Winzer, a telecoms analyst at Moody’s in Madrid, and Michael O’Brien, a credit analyst at S&P in London, both declined to comment.
VimpelCom’s Amsterdam-based parent, VimpelCom Ltd., was formed by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group and Norway’s Telenor ASA to consolidate holdings in Russian and Ukrainian mobile-phone operators. The company is 39.6 percent- owned by Fornebu, Norway-based Telenor while Alfa’s Moscow-based Altimo unit controls 39.2 percent and minority shareholders own 21.2 percent.
VimpelCom bonds plunged in August following initial reports that the company was in talks with Sawiris, pushing the yield on the company’s bonds due in 2013 to their highest since July 21 at 5.93 percent.
‘Market Fears’
“The market fears have been allayed somewhat,” Sergey Kolesnikov, head of fixed income at Moscow brokerage Metropol IFC, said in a telephone interview. “VimpelCom realized the negative effect the deal was having on their bonds and shares and it looks like they will find a clever way to structure the deal so the debt doesn’t sit on their balance sheet.”
VimpelCom is rated Ba2 at Moody’s Investors Service, two levels below investment grade, and BB+ at Standard & Poor’s, the highest non-investment grade. Wind is ranked Ba3 at Moody’s, three levels below investment grade, and B+ at S&P, four levels short. Orascom Telecom Holding has a B2 rating at Moody’s, five below investment grade, and B- at S&P, six levels under.