Dubai's du repays $817 mln syndicated loan

Dubai’s du repays $817 mln syndicated loan

Du fully repays $817 mln facility; Telecoms firm uses cash and other facilities to repay debt; du shares rise 1 pct in early Dubai trade - Reuters

July 3, 2011 10:50 by p.deleon

Dubai’s du has fully repaid a 3 billion dirhams ($816.8 million) syndicated loan facility, the telecoms carrier said in a statement on Sunday.

Du, which ended rival Etisalat’s domestic monopoly in 2007, used a “combination of existing financing facilities and cash” to repay the syndicate of 16 banks, it said in a bourse statement. The three-year facility was set up in 2008 and matured on June 30.

On June 7, du said it had closed a $220 million three-year refinancing facility and this would in part be used to pay off the maturing facility.

At March-end, du had 4.6 million mobile subscribers, it said, while the UAE total was 11.07 million, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) website, giving du a 42 percent market share.

Mobile penetration in the UAE was 197 percent as of the end of March, the TRA website says.
Du shares rose 1 percent on the Dubai stock exchange. (Reporting by Matt Smith; Editing by Dinesh Nair)