CEO: Bonds to refinance TSTT $1.5b debt

TSTT has announced that it intends to make an international offering of US dollar denominated bonds and TT dollar denominated bonds, citing the primary purpose for the proceeds of the offering to go towards “refinancing existing indebtedness”. TSTT CEO Dr Ronald Walcott said on Thursday, this is all part of the majority state-owned telecommunications company's strategic plan.

“We have always indicated, since we presented our five-year strategic plan, that it was a $3.8 billion plan, and we will be looking for funding on the capital market for $2.7 billion with the rest internally generated.

"So this is very much in keeping with that. What we decided to do was to access the amount that will allow us to refinance the existing $1.5 billion debt that we have with Republic Bank and the rest is for funding for the various activities that we’ve done including the recent restructuring," Walcott said after the launch of the bmobile-UWI innovation lab at the university's St Augustine campus.

Walcott said the plan, which was unveiled in 2016, is the main driver for all TSTT's activity as it clearly stated their intentions as an organisation. “We intend to be sustainably profitable and our financial performance this year has been excellent,” he said.

In published notices TSTT said the international bond offering would be subject to market conditions as well as corporate and regulatory approvals. It made clear that the announcement was not an "offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities." It also said it was not making an offer to sell securities in the US. TSTT said it "has not registered, and does not intend to register any securities in the US and does not intend to conduct a public offering of securities in the US."

However, the bond offering is being made in the UK only to investment professionals or any other investor it is legally able to, according to the UK financial services and markets act.