Hapag-Lloyd Returns to Bond Market

German carrier Hapag-Lloyd AG has launched a fresh round of debt offering worth EUR 200 million (USD 213.7 million), upsized from the originally announced EUR 150 million.

The placing of the additional notes was attributed by the boxship owner to “high demand”.

As explained, the additional notes are issued under the indenture dated 1 February 2017 with a maturity of five years and a coupon of 6.75%. The emission price was 102.375% leading to a yield to maturity of 6.19%.

The company intends to use the proceeds from the sale to redeem a portion of its existing 7.75% senior Euro notes due 2018.

“After successfully refinancing our US dollar bond due in autumn to a significantly lower coupon, with the completion of a bond tap offering, we have now taken advantage of the favorable market environment to also optimize the maturity profile of our other existing bonds,” said Nicolás Burr, Chief Financial Officer of Hapag-Lloyd.

The additional notes will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, the company adds.

This is the second euro bond offering since the beginning of the year, as the company launched a debt offering in January worth EUR 150 million. Part of the proceeds, namely USD 50 million, were assigned for repaying US dollar notes due in autumn 2017, while the remaining proceeds would be used to further repay existing debt.

Hapag-Lloyd has a fleet of 166 containerships and a total transport capacity of 953,000 TEU, sailing on a total of 125 liner services in the Transatlantic, Latin America and Intra-America.

The company reported EBITDA of EUR 381.3 million in the first nine months of 2016.