ZF Friedrichshafen has issued a bonded loan of EUR 2.1 billion (Rs 16,263 crore). With the funds, ZF replaces a part of the bridge financing for the planned acquisition of commercial vehicle brake manufacturer Wabco. The total amount of the bonded loan is distributed across several tranches with maturity periods of between 3 and 10 years.
ZF’s initial targeted amount for the bonded loan offering was EUR 500 million (Rs 3,873 crore). Due to a substantial oversubscription – even in a challenging market environment – ZF decided to significantly increase the amount and hereby issued the second-largest bonded loan in the company’s history at attractive market rates.
According to disclosures of the associated credit institutions, ZF has achieved a record order volume for this transaction. In addition to a number of German banks and financial institutions, international banks were the largest group of investors. “The huge interest from national and foreign investors is a great sign of confidence in our solid financial structure, the strategic logic of the Wabco acquisition, and the future direction of our company,” commented CFO Dr Konstantin Sauer.
The transaction was organised by Commerzbank, Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen, and UniCredit. As a next step, ZF is planning to issue euro bonds in order to replace the remaining amount of bridge financing for the Wabco acquisition.
