Warehouse may offer $125M of 5-year fixed-rate bonds

Warehouse Group, New Zealand's largest listed retailer, may sell as much as $125 million of five-year bonds to refinance $100 million of bonds maturing next month, and for general corporate purposes.

The Auckland-based retailer is considering offering $100 million of new unsecured, unsubordinated, fixed-rate bonds, with the ability to accept oversubscriptions for a further $25 million, in a general offer to retail and institutional investors and an exchange offer to holders of the maturing bonds, it said in a statement.

The interest rate for the proposed bonds is expected to be set through a book build process on May 19, with the offer scheduled to open May 20, it said. The existing bonds mature on June 15.

Warehouse expects to provide more details along with its third-quarter trading update this Friday, it said.

Deutsche Craigs, ANZ and BNZ are joint lead managers of the offer.

Shares in Warehouse slipped 1.4 percent to $2.75 and have dropped 11 percent so far this year.