BC Ferries sells C$200m bonds to renew fleet for rising tourist traffic

[LONDON] British Columbia Ferry Services is tapping the bond market for the first time since 2008 to replace ageing 426-foot vessels amid a rising number of global trekkers to the Pacific coast.

BC Ferries, as the company is known, sold C$200 million (S$238.4 million) of 30-year bonds earlier this week with a coupon of 4.7 per cent, after it redeemed C$140 million of notes with a 6.214 per cent coupon six months before they were due. The Victoria-based company is among issuers that have called C$5 billion of bonds this year in order to replace the debt with lower-coupon notes, according to Royal Bank of Canada.

The company, which provides service on 25 routes to 47 terminals, is upgrading its fleet five years after the financial crisis erupted amid growing demand for tourism to Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii, an island chain known as the Galapagos of the North.