Following recent news regarding the new bond issue Orco published press release. In comparison to information on newswires Orco issued Bonds with Warrants in the worth of EUR 175m entitiling the issue of 1,793,160 new shares. Bonds have maturity of 7 years, i.e. 2007-2014 with a coupon of 2.5% p.a. The initial exercise price is EUR 146.39 and warrants can be redeemed at EUR 0.01 after 5 years if the parity value exceeds EUR 190.31. Private placement was managed by Lehman Brothers. Bonds and warrants will be listed on Euronext in Paris in April 2007.
As we said yesterday, some investors and rating agencies perceive Orco’s debt level negatively. We expect the level of Orco’s debt stood at some EUR 660m at the end of the year, which implies 1.3x D/E ratio. Orco plans to use proceeds pratly for refinancing and partly for future projects. At the moment there is no dilution effect for our valuation as the option is not in the money, but we don’t rule out such a possibility in the future.