Geo Energy relaunching US dollar denominated bonds due 2022

INDONESIAN coal mining group Geo Energy Resources Limited is relaunching the US dollar denominated bond offering by its unit Geo Coal International Pte Ltd, it said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Wednesday

The issuing of the fixed rate senior notes due 2022 will help optimise and refinance the group's capital structure, and the group is constantly on the look-out for potential acquisitions of coal mining assets to boost its total coal reserves, said Tung Kum Hon, chief executive officer of Geo Energy.

He said: "Our group believes that market conditions now are better to re-launch our bond offering following the US Federal Reserves' decision to keep interbank borrowing costs steady at one per cent to 1.25 per cent, which was announced on Sept 20, 2017. However, bearing in mind that the US Federal Reserve's latest projections envisage three interest rate rises in 2018, our group has decided it is in the group's interest to re-launch the bond issue following our cancellation on July 24, 2017 due to unfavourable market conditions."

JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Citic CLSA Securities and BOC International have been mandated as joint bookrunners and joint lead managers.

The notes are expected to be rated B2 by Moody's Investors Service, B by Standard and Poor's Ratings Services, and B+ by Fitch Ratings.

Geo Energy is rated B2/Stable by Moody's Investors Service, B/Stable by Standard and Poor's Ratings Services, and B+/Stable by Fitch Ratings.