German technology companymg technologies is considering entering a swap to hedge the interest-rate risk on a floating-rate loan it took out last month. Andrea Neuroth, assistant treasurer in Frankfurt, said it would pay fixed and receive floating in the swap. The corporate took out the loan to finance the acquisition of Sylachim, a manufacturer of active drug ingredients, by its subsidiary Dynamit Nobel. Neuroth said the loan was in the millions of euros and did not cover the whole of the purchase price. She declined to name the lender, or detail the size of the loan or the interest rate it pays. An analyst estimated Sylachim cost approximately EUR150 million (USD140.4 million).
Neuroth said she expects interest rates in Europe to fall, which is why it did not enter a swap to convert the loan to a synthetic fixed-rate liability when it arranged the facility. However, mg technologies has a cautious interest-rate management policy and may want to lock into a lower interest rate, or hedge the risk in case there is a rate hike. The company expects to make a decision within a month, using information it gets from banks, the press and its own research.
Matthias Dedio, treasurer in Frankfurt, told DW in July that mg technologies uses a core of five or six banks, including Commerzbank, Dresdner Bank and Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank, for derivatives transactions (DW, 7/24). Dedio did not return calls.
