Airtel Africa repays $505m debt 1 year earlier

Airtel Africa Plc on Tuesday confirmed the completion of the early repayment of its 505 million dollars 5.125 per cent Guaranteed Senior Notes, originally due in March 2023 to investors, using cash balances available at Group level.

The telecommunication and mobile money service company disclosed this in a statement titled, “Senior Notes Repayment’ on the Nigerian Exchange Group Website.

It said that the company would save USD26.5million in future interest payments as a result of the early repayment.

”Settlement includes all outstanding accrued interest up to the Redemption date of 7 March 2022.

“One-off costs of c.$17.6m for the applicable premium will be recorded within finance costs, while the group will save an aggregate of c.$26.5m future interest payments from early redemption.

“Since the time of its Initial Public Offer (IPO) in June 2019, Airtel Africa has successfully pursued a strategy of strengthening its balance sheet through both deleveraging and reducing US dollar debt exposure.

“Over this period the group has reduced its USD HoldCo debt by c.$1.7bn and improved its leverage ratio to 1.4x net debt to underlying EBITDA at December 2021.

”Following this early repayment of Senior Notes, the Group has $1bn of bonds remaining at Holdco level, due in May 2024” it said.