Shareholders of Colombian utility Empresa de Energia de Bogota (EEB) authorized on Friday the issuance of foreign bonds of up to $610 million to repurchase existing debt.
EEB said that the issuance would be used to buy back bonds due in 2014 and issue more liquid debt of a longer maturity — for 2021 — to improve the company’s debt profile.
The firm told financial regulators that the ten-year bond may have an indicative yield of around 6.25 percent and that the repurchase would generate annual savings of $7.6 million.
EEB has assets of around $5.5 billion, and is 81.5 percent controlled by the government of Colombia’s capital, Bogota.