BERN: Gunvor Group Ltd. offered to buy back all of its outstanding $500 million bond as the commodity trader deployed part of its cash hoard after selling assets in Russia.
The offer was triggered by Gunvor’s sale of oil terminal and pipeline assets in Russia, from which it earned a net profit of about $1.7 billion, the company said Tuesday in a filing with the Singapore Stock Singapore Exchange. A “significant portion” of the asset sale proceeds was paid out through an “extraordinary restricted payment,” which could include shareholder dividends, it said.
The yield on the 2018 notes fell 152 basis points to 8.15 percent after the offer was announced. Gunvor will offer the full price for all outstanding notes that were part of its debut $500 million bond sale in May 2013. The trader already holds $154 million of the notes, it said. “We have good liquidity and cheaper forms of financing available so it made sense to do it now,” Seth Pietras, a spokesman for Gunvor in Geneva, said by phone.
