Next gets tenders for £197 million total of 5.25% bonds, 5.875% bonds

By Jennifer Chiou

New York, May 20 - Next plc announced that it took in valid tenders for £120,576,000 of its £206,297,000 of 5.25% bonds due Sept. 30, 2013 and £76.2 million of its £250 million of 5.875% bonds due 2016.

The company already announced its plans to offer £325 million of new 5.375% sterling-denominated bonds due Oct. 26, 2021, and holders who wished to subscribe for the new securities in addition to tendering their existing bonds will receive priority in the allocation of the new bonds.

Specifically, holders were able to subscribe for the new bonds in an amount equal to their tally of tendered bonds. The settlement date for the new bonds and the tender offer is anticipated for May 26.

The company said that it accepted all tendered 5.25% bonds and, factoring in pro rata scaling, £37.4 million of the 5.875% bonds tendered with new issue allocation instructions. No 5.875% bonds under the tender-only option were accepted.

The offer ended at 11 a.m. ET on May 19. The withdrawal deadline occurred at 7 a.m. ET on the same date.

The company said it will pay a purchase price of 106.789% of par for the 5.25% bonds and 108.17% of par for the 5.875% bonds. It determined the payouts using the 4.5% U.K. Treasury Gilt due 2013 plus a spread of 125 basis points for the 5.25% bonds and the 4% U.K. Treasury Gilt due 2016 plus 175 bps for the 5.875% bonds. Next added that it will pay accrued interest as well. Pricing was determined at 10 a.m. ET on May 20.

In February, the company repurchased £8,082,000 of the original £300 million of 5.25% bonds.

The company said at the start of the offers that the tenders were meant to lengthen its debt maturity profile and take advantage of favorable market conditions.

The dealer managers were Barclays Bank plc (44 20 7773 8575 or eu.lm@barcap.com) and the Royal Bank of Scotland plc (44 20 7085 3781/8056 or liabilitymanagement@rbs.com, attn: Gianmarco Deiana, Andrew Burton and Kyle McLoughlin). The tender agent was Lucid Issuer Services Ltd. (44 20 7704 0880 or nextplc@lucid-is.com; attn: David Shilson and Sunjeeve Patel).

Next is a Leicester, England-based retailer offering fashion and accessories for men, women and children, along with a range of homewares.

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