FORVIA uses its newly issued €1.0 billion euro bond to repurchase €800 million of existing 2025 and 2026 notes, thus extending average debt maturity
- Issuance of a dual-tranche senior bond of 5 and 7-year maturity
- Net proceeds were primarily used to partially refinance approximately €580 million of 2025 maturity and approximately €220 million of 2026 maturity accepted for purchase in concurrent tender offers
- Additional net proceeds intended to repay other Group debts
FORVIA has successfully closed its previously announced offering of one billion euros in aggregate principal amount of senior notes, consisting of €500 million 5.125% senior notes due 2029 and €500 million 5.50% senior notes due 2031. The new notes are listed on the Global Exchange Market of Euronext Dublin.
Taking into consideration the interest rate pre-hedging arrangement executed in December 2023 and January 2024, the economic yield of the new notes for FORVIA amounts to 4.96% for the notes due 2029 and 5.37% for the notes due 2031 (on a non-IFRS basis).
Both tranches of the new senior notes obtained credit rating in line with the long-term credit rating of FORVIA (i.e. “BB+” by Fitch Ratings, “Ba2” by Moody’s and “BB” by Standard & Poor’s).
The associated tender offers for the repurchase of FORVIA’s existing 2.625% senior notes due 2025 and existing 7.250% sustainability-linked notes due 2026 also settled today. FORVIA accepted the tenders of €800 million in aggregate principal amount of such notes, consisting of €580,254,000 in aggregate principal amount of its 2.625% senior notes due 2025 and €219,746,000 in aggregate principal amount of 7.250% sustainability-linked notes due 2026, which has now been cancelled.
FORVIA intends to use the remaining net proceeds to repay certain outstanding indebtedness.
These transactions allow the Group to efficiently manage its liabilities and extend its average debt maturity
This double operation of bond issue and repurchase of existing maturities is in line with the Group's financial strategy, consisting of taking advantage of market opportunities to optimize its financing costs, on the one hand, and to actively manage its maturities on the other hand. The pricing of the two tranches at 5 and 7 years mirrors the confidence of credit investors in FORVIA’s signature and its ability to accelerate its debt reduction, which remains our top priority.