Business
Plaza Awarded Aa3 Rating
Plaza Awarded Aa3 Rating.
About this update from Plaza Centers N.v.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n Plaza Centers N.V.\n09 January 2008\n\n9 January 2008\n\n\n\n PLAZA CENTERS AWARDED Aa3 RATING\n\n TO RAISE UP TO $330 MILLION OF NEW DEBT BY MIDROOG LTD, \n AN AFFILIATE OF MOODY'S INVESTORS SERVICE\n\n\nPlaza Centers N.V. ('Plaza' or the 'Company'), a leading emerging markets\nproperty developer, today announces that MIDROOG ltd., The Israeli Credit Rating\nAgency and an affiliate of Moody's Investors Service, has approved a rating of \n'Aa3' on Moody's scale for Plaza to raise new debt up to the amount of US$330\nmillion, on top of the current US$70 million which were raised in July 2007 and\nis also rated Aa3 by MIDROOG ltd.\n\n\nAs announced on 13 December 2007, Plaza's Board of Directors has authorized the\nfiling of a draft prospectus with the Israeli Securities Authority and the Tel\nAviv Stock Exchange ('TASE') in connection with a potential offering to the\npublic in Israel of unsecured non-convertible Series B Notes ('Series B Notes')\nand their listing on the TASE. The prospectus will also be used to list\napproximately New Israeli Shekels ('NIS') 305 million (approximately EUR 53.3\nMillion) of unsecured non-convertible Series A Notes for trade on the TASE.\nThese were originally issued by Plaza to investors in Israel in a private\ntransaction in July 2007 ('Series A Notes'). The Series A Notes bear an annual\ninterest rate of 5%, which will be reduced to 4.5% once they are listed for\ntrade on the TASE.\n\n\nPlaza now has the financial flexibility to issue additional corporate bonds in\norder to finance its continued growth, as an alternative to raising funds\nthrough the equity markets. In the event that the Company decides to proceed\nwith an offer of further corporate bonds, it anticipates that its bonds would be\nlinked to the Israeli Consumer Price Index, while the exact rate of interest\nwould be determined at tender.\n\n\nAs the Company's functional currency is the Euro, if bonds are raised the\nCompany intends to hedge the future obligation to correlate with the Euro.\n\n\nA full copy of MIDROOG's report is available at \nhttp://www.plazacenters.com/financial_reports.html\n\n(Currently in Hebrew; an English translation will be available shortly.)\n\nShould an offering of Series B Notes be made, it will be made to persons in \nIsrael only.\n\n\nCommenting on the rating, Ran Shtarkman, President and CEO of...