SES S.A. has successfully launched and priced a bond offering in which the company has agreed to sell senior unsecured fixed rate notes due in 2029 for a total amount of 750 million euros.
The new notes will bear a coupon of 3.50% and were priced at 99.725% of their nominal value, representing a credit spread of 175bps and a yield-to-maturity of 3.55%.
SES is rated Baa2, negative outlook by Moody’s, and BBB, stable outlook by Fitch. Proceeds of the issuance will be used for general corporate purposes, which include the refinancing of existing debt.
With this transaction, which was oversubscribed by more than 2x, SES has taken advantage of the current credit market conditions to further strengthen its liquidity profile well ahead of the $750 million senior debt maturity in April of next year. As a result of today’s transaction, SES has no senior debt maturities to be refinanced until 2024.
BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Goldman Sachs International, JP Morgan, Société Générale and SMBC acted as Joint Bookrunners. The settlement is scheduled for June 14, 2022, 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.
Sandeep Jalan, Chief Financial Officer of SES, said, “We are very pleased to have secured this financing which allows us to further strengthen our liquidity position in an environment of rising interest rates. 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.”