Rexam authorises successful bond issue

Rexam, the global consumer packaging company, has authorised the issue of 750m dollars-worth of senior notes in the US private placement market, ahead of the one billion pounds-worth of bonds maturing in the first half of 2013.These newly issued notes comprise $545m notes due on December 18th 2022, 25m euro-worth of notes due on the same day, and $175m of notes due on December 18th 2024. The average coupon on these new notes is just over 4%, compared with an average coupon of around 6% on the expiring notes. Owing to the timing of the maturity of the existing c£1bn bonds, the benefit of this lower interest rate will be realised from the second half of 2013, the firm said. David Robbie, Rexam's Finance Director, commented: "We are pleased to have signed the transaction successfully at a significantly lower coupon than our maturing bonds. Rexam has a strong capital structure and having significantly strengthened our balance sheet, we only sought to refinance a portion of the £1bn of bonds due to mature in 2013."NR