Contact plans to buy back some retail bonds paying 8 percent

By Paul McBeth

Oct. 11 (BusinessDesk) - Contact Energy, the biggest listed power company, plans to buy back some of its listed retail bonds paying annual interest of 8 percent.

The Wellington-based company will buy back some of its $550 million in listed debt using existing cash and available bank facilities, with no minimum or maximum amounts, it said in a statement.

The bonds mature on May 15, 2015, and last traded at $103.634 per $100 face value, a yield of 4 percent.

Contact has appointed Craigs Investment Partners to bid for the debt on its behalf on the NZX’s debt market, and will also purchase the bonds over-the-counter.

The company raised US$240 million in a wholesale bond issue to US investors in June to help refinance the 2014 retail bond, which hadn’t been drawn on its June 30 balance date. Contact had $80 million in cash and equivalents at the end of its financial year.

The shares slipped 0.2 percent to $5.28 in trading yesterday, and have edged up 1.5 percent this year, lagging the 12 percent gain on the NZX All Index, a capital index of all domestic equities on the local bourse, over the same period.

(BusinessDesk)

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