Eir plans new €150m revolving credit facility

Eir said on Wednesday it is planning a loan facility of up to €150 million as it continues to weigh a refinancing of a high-cost bond.

The company, formerly known as Eircom, needs the approval of requisite senior lenders, who are owed about €2 billion, to put the revolving credit facility in place.

Such a facility, which could be drawn down at any stage in its lifetime, will give Eir “greater flexibility within our capital structure,” a spokesman for the comany said.

“We continue to review a range of options, including a possible bond,” he said.

Eir has been considering for some time the refinancing of €350 million of high-yielding bonds that it sold in 2013, a year after it emerged from an examinership process where about €1.8 billion of its debt was written off.

The company has had the option to redeem these notes since the middle of this month.

In an interview with The Irish Times in April, group chief financial officer Huib Costermans said the company had not decided at this stage whether it would issue new bonds, extend its existing creditor loans or obtain another credit facility to refinance the bonds, which carry a 9.25 per cent annual interest rate.