Verizon has announced its second jumbo exchange offer in as many years, targeting holders of up to US $30.6bn of existing notes for about US $12.5bn of senior debt. The offer, led by Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, asks investors to tender seven existing notes in exchange for three new bonds of up to US $3bn of 2036s priced at 170bp over Treasuries, US $4.5bn 2048s at 195bp and US $5bn 2055s at 210bp.
It follows a US $13.3bn exchange offering last year, which, like the current transaction, was aimed at simplifying Verizon's job of managing a huge US $113.3bn debt load, which ballooned in 2013 when it issued US $49bn of bonds and US $12bn of loans to help pay for its acquisition of the part of Verizon Wireless it didn't already own.