Despite the labor dispute and the attempts by the employees to spoil things, Oil Refineries Ltd. (TASE:ORL) has apparently had a successful debt offering. The company, which sought to raise NIS 500 million in two bond series (shekel and dollar), will raise NIS 584 million in the institutional stage, and will expand the total offering to NIS 700 million. Demand form the institutions totaled NIS 1.7 billion.
Institutions seeking exposure to the US dollar fell on the dollar series, apparently at an interest rate of 4.75%, which means that the entire offering will be dollar-denominated, as the company will cancel the shekel series offering.
An underwriting source said, "It is completely legitimate for a company whose business is conducted in dollars to obtain its loans in dollars. Investors are currently eyeing dollar exposure, and this series of Oil Refineries is interesting."
A senior investment manager said, "If Oil Refineries' employees thought they could spoil the offering, they do not understand how the capital market works. Their ability to wreck an offering like this is low. Of course, had something serious developed we would have asked for the offering to be postponed by a day or two, but that is the limit of the damage the workers could have caused."
Oil Refineries CFO Israel Lederberg said, "With the raising of Oil Refineries' credit rating to the A group, today we completed another successful offering of a new dollar bond series with a long duration at an interest rate of 4.7%. The high demand and the interest rate achieved in the institutional tender testify to the capital market's confidence in the company. This is a further move in stabilizing the group financially and improving its financial strength and its liquidity. We will continued to take steps to cut the group's net debt while reducing financing costs and extending the duration."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 25, 2017
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