Vodafone Ukraine raises price of its latest Eurobond buyback for fifth time, to 96% of par value
Ukraine's second-largest mobile operator, Vodafone Ukraine (VFU), which repurchased its own Eurobonds worth almost $7 million in connection with dividend payments at the end of May, has announced for the fifth time an increase in the repurchase price at its fourth such tender – to 96% of the par value, up from 95% two weeks earlier and 85% in the initial offer on August 13.
As noted in the company's announcement on the Irish Stock Exchange, the maximum buyback amount has been increased by $1.175 million to $6.791 million.
The application deadline has been extended from October 9 to October 23, with settlement now scheduled for approximately October 30.
In the first two tenders, Vodafone Ukraine purchased bonds worth the equivalent of EUR 1 million. The first tender was announced at 99% of the par value, and the second at 90% of the par value. The company did not announce the results of the second tender on the stock exchange, while the scaling factor for the first tender was 0.0040355668.
Following the third tender, where the buyout price was reduced to 85% of the par value and the offer was capped at $4.67 million, Vodafone Ukraine received bids totaling $53.395 million and satisfied them in the amount of $5.208 million. The scaling factor was 0.1315451889487317.
Bonds maturing in February 2027 and bearing a nominal interest rate of 9.625% per annum were issued in the amount of $300 million. After the cancellation of the redeemed bonds, the total par value of bonds remaining outstanding is $292.532 million.
The Eurobond repurchase follows VFU's announcement on April 24, 2025, of a dividend payment to its shareholder in the amount of UAH 660.2 million ($15.9 million at the exchange rate stated in the announcement) for 2024. According to the National Bank's restrictions, these dividends will be paid in separate monthly installments. Each monthly dividend is expected to be in hryvnia equivalent to EUR 1 million. The company noted that, according to the terms of the bond issue, in such a case, it would be required to invite all bondholders to submit a bond sale order for an amount equal to the dividends paid outside of Ukraine. Since then, six monthly dividend payments have been made, each equivalent to approximately EUR 1 million.
As reported, VFU saw its net profit in the first half of 2025 decrease by 13% year-on-year to UAH 1.705 billion, while its revenue increased by 15% to UAH 13.518 billion.