Safilo Has Launched a Bond for 300 Million Euros

According to the morning's announcement by Reuters, Safilo Capital International S. has launched a bond for 300 million euros over a 10-year period and with a yield of 9.625%.The operation's lead managers are Credit Swiss First Boston (bookrunner) and Caboto Sim (co-lead).

The bond has a price of 100.00; maturity is fixed for May 15, 2013 and it is callable at the fifth year. Sources say that bond yield at launch is 576 bp above Treasuries Usa's 4.5% at January 2013. Settlement will take place on the 15th of this month.

The bond is guaranteed by Safilo spa and by three other subsidiaries and investors will be given an additional guarantee in the form of a pledge on the company's shares. Market sources yesterday told Reuters that the lead managers had specified that the security is not on sale for retail clients.

S&P gave the bond a 'B' rating, but assigned a 'BB-' rating to Safilo's long-term corporate credit with a stable outlook. S&P also gave the same 'BB-' rating to the company's guaranteed senior credit lines for a total of 650 million euros and maturity between 2009 and 2011.

Moody's Investors Service gave Safilo implicit senior 'B1' rating with stable outlook and the bond a P'B3' rating. Moreover, it assigned the same 'B1' rating to the guaranteed senior credit lines.