LONDON (Alliance News) - Vodafone Group PLC on Wednesday said it has closed its USD2 billion hybrid securities offering.
The securities are due April 2079 and have a euro equivalent rate of 4.38%. This offering concludes Vodafone's funding requirements for its acquisition of assets from fellow telecoms firm Liberty Global PLC.
Vodafone has raised, in total, EUR20 billion at an average euro equivalent rate of 2.3% and weighted average maturity of 9.7 years.
Vodafone announced the deal in May 2018, under which it will acquire the operations of Liberty Global in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania for an enterprise value of EUR18.4 billion.
Earlier on Thursday, Moody's Investors Service assigned a Ba1 rating to Vodafone's new hybrid securities, below Vodafone's senior unsecured rating of Baa2.
"The Ba1 rating we have assigned to the hybrid securities is two notches below Vodafone's senior unsecured rating of Baa2, primarily because the instrument is deeply subordinated to other debt in the company's capital structure," said Moody's Vice President Laura Perez.
Shares in Vodafone closed up 0.5% on Thursday at 144.45 pence each.