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[February 2004]
Germany's SGL Successfully Completes Refinancing
SGL Carbon AG (Wiesbaden, Germany) has announced that it has successfully completed the three financing measures previously reported on 5 December 2003 - a capital increase including pre-emptive rights, a high yield bond and syndicated loan - as part of the Group's long-term refinancing. All refinancing measures were completed in only two months, including the five-week invitation period for the EGM on 15 January 2004.
The capital increase was approved by 99.6% of shareholders at the EGM. Existing and new shareholders exercised 99.9% of the pre-emptive rights for the new SGL Carbon shares during the two-week subscription period. The original guaranteed minimum subscription price could be raised from €6 to €8. This generated gross proceeds of €266 - well above the originally projected €200. The total number of shares increased by 33,277,437 to 55,462,395.
As the net proceeds of the capital increase were higher than expected, the volume of the bond was reduced to €270 million. Due to strong demand, the bond was issued exclusively in euro. The rapid placement was completed earlier than scheduled. The tranche originally earmarked in dollars for the US market was not required. The securities will mature in February 2012 and feature a coupon of 8.5%.
The last of three components was a €330 million syndicated loan with a term of five and six years. In December 2002, the company had entered into a syndicated loan with a total volume of €495 million and a maturity of two and half years which has been replaced by the new refinancing package. Overall, the structure of the refinancing package as well as the lower volume of the new syndicated loan have helped to substantially reduce SGL's dependence on its banks.
ENDS