Airtel Africa gets $500 million loan facility to refinance Eurobond

Airtel Africa, yesterday announced the successful signing of a new $500 million loan facility with a group of relationship banks.

The Company in a statement released on the Nigerian Exchange Limited said that “The new committed facility consists of a combination of a revolving credit facility and term loans with tenor of up to four years. The facility will be used to partially refinance the Group’s €750 million Euro-denominated bonds (c.$880m) due May 20, 2021.”

According to the Company, the balance of the Euro-denominated bond will be repaid with existing Group cash to reduce gross debt and associated interest costs. The new loan facility further strengthens the core liquidity of the Group.

“It also has prepayment flexibilities that will allow the Group to optimise the efficiency of its capital structure with the free cash flows and cash receipts anticipated over the next 12 months following the recent announcements related to tower sales and mobile money minority investments.

“The banks which participated in the facility include a diverse group of existing global relationship banks, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Citibank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank and two Indian relationship banks, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.”

Airtel Africa is a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in 14 countries in Africa, primarily in East Africa and Central and West Africa. Airtel Africa offers an integrated suite of telecommunications solutions to its subscribers, including mobile voice and data services as well as mobile money services, both nationally and internationally.