Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) announced to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on Thursday that it had received a commitment from a consortium of banks to provide it with a NIS 600 million line of credit in 2016 for the purpose of recycling debt.
The loan will be drawn down in June 2016, and will be repaid in five equal annual instalments from June 1, 2019 to June 1, 2023. The loan will bear a 3.7% fixed rate of interest. No new liens will be imposed on Bezeq's assets.
In late January 2014, Bezeq parent company B Communications announced the raising of $775 million in Israel and Europe though a bond offering. That offering too was for the purpose of recycling debt.
Bezeq, controlled by Shaul Elovitch and managed by Stella Handler, had a 5.3% decline in its revenue in 2014 to NIS 9.1 billion, mainly because of a decline in the results of mobile telephony subsidiary Pelephone. EBITDA rose 9.1% to NIS 4.5 billion, and the net profit attributable to shareholders rose 19.2% to NIS 2.1 billion, mainly thanks to profits on the sale of the Yad-2 classified sales advertising website to Axel Springer for NIS 806 million. For 2015, Bezeq sees a net profit of NIS 1.5 billion and free cash flow of NIS 2 billion. The possible material consequences of a new collective agreement with the company's workers which is under negotiation are not included in the guidance.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 5, 2015
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