International Personal Finance plc ("IPF"), the holding company for a leading provider of home credit, has today launched an offer of 6.125% sterling bonds due 2020. The bonds are available to retail investors and are being issued by IPF for general corporate purposes.
IPF and its subsidiaries (the "Group") provide small sum, short term unsecured loans in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Mexico, Lithuania and Bulgaria. At 31 December 2012 the Group had approximately 6,330 employees and 28,500 agents. The Group's head office is in Leeds in the United Kingdom. In 2012 the Group served 2.4 million customers and profit before tax and exceptional items was £95.1M.
The bonds bear interest at a fixed rate of 6.125% per annum, payable semi-annually in arrear in equal instalments. Bondholders should, in most normal circumstances, be able to sell their bonds during normal trading hours (subject to market conditions) on the open market through their stockbroker.
Canaccord Genuity Limited is acting as Manager on this issue.
The bonds have a minimum initial subscription amount of £2,000 face value and are available in multiples of £100 face value thereafter.
The offer period is now open and is expected to close at 12 noon (London time) on 15 November 2013. The Manager retains the right to close the offer early, in conjunction with IPF.
The bonds will be consolidated and form a single series, from and including the issue date, with the existing £70,000,000 6.125% notes due 2020 issued on 8 May 2013. The bonds are expected to be listed on the UK Listing Authority's Official List and admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange's regulated market and through the electronic Order Book for Retail Bonds.
Commenting on the launch, Gerard Ryan, Chief Executive Officer of IPF said:
"Our strategic objective of diversifying our funding is taking another step forward today. Our retail bond earlier this year was heavily oversubscribed, and re-opening this bond issue gives investors who missed out another opportunity to invest in the on-going success of IPF. The re-opening of an existing issue, which is the first such extension in the UK retail bond market, will also bring benefits of increased liquidity."
