Cemex prepays 2017 maturity in credit agreement

This prepayment, which is part of an agreement reached with a group of existing lenders in the Credit Agreement, US$664 million of currently funded commitments maturing in 2018 have been exchanged into a revolving facility, maintaining their original amortisation schedule and the same terms and conditions.

The new revolving facility will provide Cemex with additional flexibility to optimise the use of proceeds from asset sales and free cash flow while it continues to proactively manage its debt profile.

“We remain fully committed to reach our debt reduction and leverage ratio targets and are encouraged by the progress so far. With this prepayment, mainly made by applying the recent proceeds received from asset sales and free cash flow generated since 30 September, we have now reduced over US$3.0 billion of total debt plus perpetuals since December 2014, which represents approximately a 19% reduction. Under our Credit Agreement, the expected improvement in our leverage ratio by December 2016 would result in a further reduction in the applicable spread, declining to 300 bps from 350 bps as of December 2015,” said José Antonio González, Cemex’s Chief Financial Officer. “We now have no relevant maturities through March 2018. We are confident that we continue moving forward with our efforts to reach investment grade metrics.” With this initiative the total amount of commitments under revolving facilities in the Credit Agreement has increased to US$1.4 billion, including US$664 million under this new revolving facility maturing in 2018 and US$749 million with final maturity in 2020.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/europe-cis/01122016/cemex-prepays-2017-maturity-in-credit-agreement/