Britain's United Business Media Plc plans to sell at least 500 million euros ($641 million) of bonds with a maturity of about five years, in its debut euro bond sale, a company official said on Tuesday.
The benchmark-sized euro bond will be used to fund general corporate purposes, United Business Media's treasury operations manager, Lynn Windell, told Reuters. Benchmark-sized euro bonds usually total at least 500 million euros.
An official at one of the lead managers said the bond would launch and price in the week of September 11, after meetings with British and European investors from September 4 to September 7.
Barclays Capital, HSBC and Societe Generale are managing the deal. The bond will have "change of control" covenants, the official at the lead manager added. These clauses, meant to protect investors against a debt-heavy buyout, usually allow bondholders to sell the bonds back to the issuer if a take-over sends its credit rating to "junk".
UBM holds a BBB- credit rating from Standard & Poor's and a Baa2 rating from Moody's Investors Service, respectively on the lowest- and second-lowest levels of investment grade.