France Télécom's Orange IPO dominated the capital markets this week as, within two days of trading, the share price plummeted 13%. The French company's woes were completed when Moody's downgraded its credit two notches to A3, driving its spreads 5bp to 10bp wider. However, the difficult conditions for issuance have not deterred European telecoms credits from lining up further offerings. While Telecom Italia is expected to launch its multi-tranche transaction soon, Deutsche Telekom will next week issue more than ¥100bn in the Samurai market in a four tranche offering. The company is considering issuing ¥40bn of three year fixed rate bonds at 90bp-100bp over Libor, ¥30bn of five year bonds at 100bp-110bp, ¥10bn of seven year bonds at 120bp-130bp and ¥20bn of three year FRNs at 90bp-100bp. Subject to demand, the overall deal size could be increased to ¥200bn. Daiwa SB Capital Markets and Mizuho Securities have the mandate.
February 16, 2001