Ziggo issues bonds to repay debts

Gail Mwamba
22 April 2010

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Ziggo, the Dutch cable television operator owned by private equity investors Warburg Pincus and Cinven, plans to sell €1.2bn of high-yield bonds to finance the repayment of existing debts.

Ziggo said the net proceeds of the bond offering will be used to fully repay its mezzanine and credit facilities, including the debts owed by its subsidiaries. The company is estimated to have over €1.5 billion in debts, used to finance the acquisition of its component companies - having been created in 2008 as a merger of cable operators Multikabel, Casema, and Kabelcom.

Multikabel's € 515m acquisition by Warburg in 2005 was backed by a €410 mezzanine and debt facility from ING. Warburg then partnered with Cinven in a €2.1bn secondary buyout of Casema in 2006, which included a €1bn debt and mezzanine facility from Credit Suisse, ABN Amro and ING. The three debt financers were then joined by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Apollo to provide a mezzanine and debt package for Warburg and Cinven's €2.6bn buyout of Kabelcom at the end of 2006.

Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs are co-ordinating the bond issuance for Ziggo, while BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, ING Groep NV and JP Morgan are the book runners. The bonds mature in 2018 and have received a B rating from Standard & Poor's, as well as a B2 from Moody's, categorising them as high yield.