Centrica issues £840m notes to finance recent acquisition costs
FTSE 100-listed energy firm Centrica yesterday said it is issuing two bonds totalling $1.35bn (£840m), to pay for previously announced acquisitions and refinance existing debt.
The new facility is made up of $750m in four per cent senior notes due 2023 and $600m-worth of 5.375 per cent senior notes due 2043.
Centrica – which owns British Gas – bought Hess Corporation’s US energy retail arm for around $1bn in July, following a joint deal with Qatar in April to buy oil and gas assets in Canada from Suncor Energy.
The firm said at the time of the Hess deal that it sees the US as a more attractive market for acquisitions than the UK, due to the low gas price there. Shares closed down 1.3 per cent at 358.7p.
ADVISERS CENTRICA’S BOND SALE
COLM RAINEY
CITIGROUP
BARCLAYS, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities, HSBC, JP Morgan, RBS and Societe Generale were joint bookrunners on Centrica’s bond issue.
On the Citigroup team, Colm Rainey, director for debt capital markets, and Marcel Hanen, managing director for corporate and investment banking, are leading the team. Rainey previously worked at HSBC and has been in banking for 11 years. Since moving to Citi in May 2007, he has worked on a wide range of debt transactions for blue-chip companies across a number of sectors, geographies and ratings, including energy network operator National Grid, water firm Severn Trent and pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca.
Hanen has over 18 years’ banking experience and has been involved in the power sector for more than 15 years. He has experience in providing strategic advice, corporate finance, capital markets, treasury and structured solutions to Citi’s global clients. Prior to joining Citi, he worked for six years at ING Barings.
Thomas Minoletti is leading the Societe Generale team and has 11 years’ experience in international debt capital markets. He joined Societe Generale in 2006.