Bahrain's Batelco tenders for up to $200 million 4¼% notes due 2020

By Susanna Moon

Chicago, March 24 - Bahrain Telecommunications Co. BSC (Batelco) said it began a tender offer for the $650 million 4¼% guaranteed notes due 2020 issued by Batelco International Finance No. 1 Ltd.

The company is offering to purchase up to $200 million of the $604,371,000 outstanding 4¼% notes guaranteed by Batelco, according to a company press release.

The purchase price for the offer will be set using a modified Dutch auction with a minimum price of $970.00 per $1,000 principal amount.

The company also will pay accrued interest up to but excluding the settlement date of April 4.

In the offer, the company will accept notes in the following order, subject to possible proration:

• All non-competitive offers for notes;

• All competitive offers with a price below the purchase price; and

• All competitive offers with a price equal to the purchase price.

The offer will end at 11 a.m. ET on March 31.

Batelco said it is seeking to purchase some of the notes as a result of excess liquidity from an acquisition that failed to go through, and the offer also provides some liquidity to noteholders.

The company also will benefit from reduced costs associated with the ongoing servicing of the notes.

The dealer managers are Citigroup Global Markets Ltd. (+44 20 7986 8969, attn: liability management group, e-mail to liabilitymanagement.europe@citi.com) and Standard Chartered Bank (+44 20788 55739; +971 0 4508 3650; +97145084412, e-mail to DCMSyndicateLON@sc.com; Hussain.zaidi@sc.om; mirza.sarmad@sc.com).

The tender agent is Citibank, NA (+44 0 20 7508 3867, e-mail exchange.gats@citi.com).

The Bahrain-based telecommunications operator is 78% owned by the Kingdom of Bahrain.

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