Bombardier, the Canadian aircraft and rail manufacturer, has signed a euro500 million ($442.89 million) Euro-CP programme. Citibank is the arranger and is joined on the dealer panel by ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale. Bartlomiej Muszynski, treasurer at Bombardier, explained the motivation behind the signing of the debt facility. He says: "The funding off the programme will mainly be used for the transportation side of our group in Europe. It will allow us to be much more liquid and flexible." Bombardier has already issued five trades off the programme, which have ranged between euro10 million and euro30 million in size. Muszynski says: "Our funding target this year depends on our liquidity, but we will not reach the euro500 million limit as we have no need for so much money." The issuer is rated A- by Standard & Poor's and A3 by Moody's. Bombardier recently announced full-year results for fiscal 2002 (year ended January 31). Net income fell to C$391 million ($247.63 million) from the previous year's level of C$975 million, reflecting special charges of about C$1.1 billion related to programme re-valuing in Bombardier's aerospace division, restructuring charges in its transportation programme and asset re-valuing at its finance subsidiary, Bombardier Capital.
March 22, 2002