Published: January 19, 2012
Serbian telecoms company receives share buy-back funds from 19 banks.
Telekom Srbija, a Belgrade-based telecommunications company, has secured €470mn from a syndicate of 19 banks.
Austrian banking group Erste’s Serbian subsidiary was the joint mandated lead arranger. The bank, which was also an underwriter and bookrunner, committed €140mn to the deal.
Telekom Srbija will use €320mn The syndicate included commitments from Credit Agricole, Societe Generale and Raiffeisen.
Also participating in the three-year loan was EFG, Komercijalna Banka, Intesa Sanpaolo and OTP as well as the Hypo-Alpe-Adira Bank, Piraeus Bank and Vojvodjanska Bank.of the proceeds for a share buy-back from Greek telecom OTE, which owns 20% of the company. The balance will be used to refinance debt.
Despite difficult market conditions the transaction was oversubscribed. According to Erste, this highlights the resilience of Serbia’s telecoms market where all but the mobile sector recorded growth in 2011.