Marble II’s planned sale of most/all of its stake in Indian IT company Mphasis will lead to full redemption of its $500mn 5.3% 2022s according to Fitch. The rating agency expects Marble II to receive $1.7bn-2bn from the stake sale to Blackstone PE funds. Marble II’s ultimate parent is Blackstone and the latter announced that “other private equity funds it manages – Blackstone Capital Partners Asia Funds and BCP Asia – have entered into definitive agreements with Marble II to acquire up to 75% of Mphasis.” The PE funds plan to acquire up to a 56% stake that Marble II holds in Mphasis – that will trigger a mandatory open offer to purchase up to 26% in additional shares from public shareholders subject to a total stake of 75% in Mphasis. Marble II will likely sell 49-56% of Mphasis shares, with no operations and zero debt after the completion of the transaction. But, under the terms of the dollar 2022s, Marble II also cannot use the proceeds for other purposes like shareholder benefits unless the bonds have been redeemed.
Marble II’s USD 5.3% 2022s were flat at 100.23, yielding 3.31%
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