TAURON issued Eurobonds worth EUR 500 million

TAURON Polska Energia S.A. issued Eurobonds with the total nominal value of EUR 500 million and the tenor of 10 years from the issue date. Proceeds from the Eurobond issue will be used for the purpose of refinancing the costs of developing and acquiring wind farms by one of the Group’s companies, financing the Group’s investments in the distribution segment and general corporate purposes. The bonds will be listed on the London Stock Exchange.

- TAURON’s Eurobond offering attracted strong interest from the European and domestic investors as demonstrated by the fact that the issue was almost three times oversubscribed. Acquiring financing from the Eurobond issue is one of the actions taken by TAURON Group as part of the implementation of its financing policy. The goal is to provide funds for the Group’s operations, diversify its sources of financing and extend the weighted average debt maturity. Completion of the issue is aimed at optimizing TAURON Group’s debt management and the issue does not constitute an additional debt in relation to the assumptions adopted in TAURON Group’s Strategy published in September 2016 – says Filip Grzegorczyk, CEO of TAURON Polska Energia. – Such actions should lead to a positive perception of TAURON, both by the rating agency as well as by other financial institutions.

TAURON Group is maintaining its net debt/EDITDA ratio at a safe level. At the end of Q1 2017 the leverage ratio reached 2.31x. TAURON Group’s intention is to maintain the leverage ratio at the level not higher than 3.0, i.e. significantly below 3.5 which is its permitted value under the financing agreements.

At the end of last year Fitch rating agency changed TAURON’s outlook to stable, and one of the factors leading to the outlook change was a positive evaluation of the actions taken as part of the company’s financing policy.

- Eurobond issue is a further proof of TAURON Group’s attractiveness for investors – it should be recalled that in 2014 TAURON successfully placed a bond issue worth PLN 1.75bn on the domestic market and in 2015 the so-called NSV issue worth EUR 168m was conducted for foreign investors. It is also worth noting that in 2015 TAURON concluded a 5-year bond issue program worth PLN 6.27bn with commercial banks, with the maturity of PLN 5.32bn extended by one year and the maturity of PLN 2.45bn extended by two years in June this year. – says Marek Wadowski, CFO of TAURON Polska Energia. 

The company is seeking admission for its Eurobonds to trading on the regulated market of the London Stock Exchange. 

More than thirty investors subscribed for the Eurobonds. Almost half of the offering went to investors from Great Britain, 14 percent to investors from Germany, and 11 percent to domestic entities. Based on investor type the issue’s breakdown is as follows: 83 percent of the issue was purchased by asset management entities, 12 percent by insurers and pension funds, while the remaining of the offering was allocated mainly to the banks.

As part of the 5-day roadshow meetings and conference calls with approx. 80 investors interested in taking part in the issue were held. TAURON’s representatives visited Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, London, Paris and Warsaw, which finally led to the total demand for TAURON’s bonds topping EUR 1.4bn as a result of bids submitted by more than 100 investors.

Fitch rating agency granted TAURON’s Eurobonds an initial rating of "BBB".

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