Vodafone eyes Australian bond offer as it seeks to offload at least 130 staff
Telecoms giant Vodafone has approached investors to test their appetite for a possible Australian dollar bond issue.
Preliminary discussions centred on a seven-year issue at around 170 basis points over swap.
Investors named National Australia Bank (NAB) as the bank which was marketing the possible issue.
Vodafone said it has no firm plans at this stage having just completed a A$3bn (£1.72bn) bank refinancing package. NAB declined to comment.
The telecom company has issued A$265m of 2013 notes in 2006 in a kangaroo bond offer jointly managed by Citigroup and Deutsche Bank. The issue was rated A-minus by S&P and Fitch and Baa1 by Moody’s.
Vodafone, which will announce its quarterly results next week, will seek to shed 130 jobs following a review of its business.
It has launched a consultation with its workforce and trade unions, due to finish next month. The firm hopes to achieve the reduction in staff through voluntary redundancies.
HR director Francesco Bianco said: “Given the significant deterioration in the market, the decline in consumer spending and the impact this has had across the telecoms industry, we have to review all costs within our business to ensure we’re operating efficiently and delivering good value to our customers.”