Automotive supplier Continental (CTTAY.PK) on Wednesday said it signed a new syndicated 4.5 billion euros loan agreement, thus further improving its debt maturity profile. Committed to by about 30 domestic and international banks, the credit amount has been reduced slightly, Continental noted.
The 4.5 billion euros loan is split up into two tranches - a loan of .5 billion euros with a term of three years, and a five-year revolving credit line of 3 billion euros.
For the new syndicated loan, Continental was able to obtain the release of the asset collateral previously put up for the financing. The firm also implemented additional simplifications to the documentation.
Continental CFO Wolfgang Schaefer said, ''The new loan agreement not only improves our financing and debt maturity profile but also puts our financing on a geographically broader footing. This will enable us to better absorb regional fluctuations in the global capital market environment in the future and generally respond more flexibly to volatile markets.''
Continental was able to reduce nearly 9 billion euros of its original 13.5 billion euros syndicated loan agreed in 2007, mainly by way of launching five bonds and generating free cash flow.
In the last three years, the company's net indebtedness dropped by more than 2.5 billion euros. At the end of the 3rd quarter of 2012, it stood at 6.8 billion euros.
Continental closed the third quarter of 2012 with unused credit line commitments of under 2.6
billion euros. Up until then, the company had availed only 602 million euros of the 2.5 billion euros revolving credit line under the terms of the previous syndicated loan.
The company is scheduled to present full year preliminary figures on March 7.
The stock is falling 0.3 percent at 84.38 euros.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com