North sea oil company ithaca energy priced a debut high-yield bond offering last week, diversifying its funding sources away from bank debt alone and giving itself more leeway to fund an acquisition in the coming months. The proceeds from the US$300m high-yield bond, rated Caa1/CCC+, partially repaid the company's RBL facility, which it will use in the months ahead to finance the acquisition of Summit Petroleum for US$170m, said one source close to the deal. The company, dual-listed in London and Toronto, could have tried to tap public equity markets or might have gone to its relationship banks for more cash, but decided instead to get a foothold in what is currently a very strong high-yield market.
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