SES S.A. announced today the successful launch and pricing of a bond offering in which it has agreed to sell senior unsecured fixed rate notes due in 2027 for a total amount of EUR 500 million. The notes will bear a Coupon of 0.875% per annum and were priced at 99.762% of their nominal value.
SES is rated Baa2 by Moody’s (with stable outlook) and BBB- by Standard & Poor’s (with stable outlook). Proceeds of the issuance will be used for general corporate purposes which includes the refinancing of existing debt.
With this transaction, which was oversubscribed by more than 5 times, SES has taken advantage of the current attractive market conditions to further strengthen its liquidity profile ahead of a EUR 650 million senior debt maturity in March of next year and issued a bond with the lowest coupon in the company's history.
Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, MUFG, SMBC Nikko and Société Générale acted as Joint Bookrunners. The settlement is scheduled for 4 November 2019 and application has been made for the notes to be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The securities were placed with a broad range of institutional investors across Europe.
Andrew Browne, Chief Financial Officer of SES, commented: “We are pleased to have secured this financing which allows us to proactively refinance an upcoming debt maturity at more favourable terms. The successful conclusion of this bond offering reflects the market's view of SES as a strong investment grade credit, and underlines the ability of SES to secure funding at attractive terms."