Datacentre owner and operator, Global Switch, has completed two further bond transactions in Sterling and Australian dollars, raising an equivalent total of £405m. Global Switch issued its inaugural €600m seven year bond, in 2011.
With the assignment of a BBB credit rating from Standard & Poor’s in November to complement the existing investment grade ratings from Fitch and Moody’s, the company announced its intention to conduct investor meetings in Europe and Australia. On the back of the positive response to these meetings, Global Switch was able to build order books supporting the successful pricing of two bonds at the tight end of initial price talk:
A Sterling 350 million bond which matures on December 13, 2022, paying a coupon of 4.375%. Joint bookrunners were Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and HSBC.
An Australian dollar 100 million bond which matures on December 23, 2020, paying a coupon of 6.250%. Joint bookrunners were Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deutsche Bank and HSBC.
Proceeds of the transactions will be used to pay an exceptional dividend of up to £600m to Global Switch’s parent company, Aldersgate Investments Limited.
John Corcoran, Executive Chairman, Global Switch, said “As a result of this process Global Switch now has a more appropriate long term capital structure. We have once again demonstrated our access to the deep liquidity of the international bond markets and were able to take advantage of a low interest rate environment to reduce our cost of capital. We were delighted to see such a positive investor reaction to the Global Switch credit in both the European and Australian markets and it was encouraging to see so many of our existing Euro bond investors participate in this latest fund raising”.
Origional story .
