UAE’s Etisalat Group issues EUR1bn bonds

UAE telecom operator, Etisalat Group, has announced the successful completion of a bond issuance worth EUR1bn to refinance the maturing bond tranche it had issued in 2014 for the acquisition of a controlling stake in Maroc Telecom.

Etisalat Group issued the bonds in two tranches. The first is a 7-year tranche amounting to EUR500m with an annual yield of 0.4 percent, the group said in a statement on Sunday.

The second tranche is for a 12-year period and amounts to EUR500m with an annual yield of 1 per cent.

The refinancing decision aims to diversify the company’s sources of funds and extending the repayment schedule of existing debt while taking benefit of improved cost of funding.

The bond issuance which saw demand from local and international investors was six times oversubscribed.

The group stated that the high demand reflects investors’ confidence in its performance, strong financial profile and credit ratings; Aa3 stable (Moody’s) and AA- Stable (S&P Global).

The group reported its consolidated net profit, after deduction of the federal royalty, amounted to Dhs2.3bn representing a year-on-year increase of 7.9 per cent and resulting in a net profit margin of 18 per cent.

For the 12 months ending December 31, 2020, it reported a net profit, after federal royalty, of Dhs9bn, up 3.8 per cent year-on-year.

The company said its aggregate subscriber base reached 156 million as of March 31, 2021, representing a year-on-year increase of 4 per cent.

Read: UAE operator Etisalat reports Dhs9bn net profit in 2020; up 3.8% y-on-y