Airtel Africa Completes $550m Bond Repayment

Airtel Africa, telecommunications and mobile money services provider, has revealed that its subsidiary, Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) B.V., has repaid in full its $550m bond maturing Monday.

This was disclosed in a corporate filing with the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NDX) signed by G Simon O’Hara, group company secretary, on Monday.

With this repayment, the company said that it had achieved a zero-debt position at the HoldCo.

The $550m bond was 5.35 per cent Guaranteed Senior Notes.

“This bond repayment of $550m has been made exclusively out of cash reserves at the holding company and is a continuation of its strategy to reduce external foreign currency debt. At the time of the IPO in June 2019, the group had $2,719m of external debt at HoldCo which resulted in significant exposure to currency fluctuations and the reliance on upstreaming funds to cover both interest costs and the principal repayment.
“Through consistent execution of its strategy supporting strong free cash flow generation, and continued upstreaming success, the group has been reducing Holdco debt over the past few years and has now reached the significant milestone of a zero-debt position at HoldCo. The current leverage and capital structure is a reflection of the Group’s successful capital allocation strategy that has been in place since our IPO, and it will aim to continue reducing foreign currency debt obligations across its OpCo’s,” part of the statement from the telecoms provider said.