Romania’s leading cable and DTH operator RCS/RDS has postponed the sale of bonds on foreign markets totalling $200 million (€146.7 million). Quoting Standard & Poor’s, ZF says the reason for doing so is the current difficult conditions in financial markets.
Citibank in London had tried to place the bonds, due to mature in 2017, at an interest rate of between 9.75% and 10%, though this was felt to be too low by potential investors.
Securing the funding is seen as crucial to RCS/RDS’s future development as it goes head to head with UPC and Romtelecom. Both the Liberty Global company and OTE-backed incumbent telco are investing heavily in upgrading their infrastructure – €150 million in the case of Romtelecom alone this year – in order to offer improved services.