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Verizon Global Debt Sale Spree Tops $30 Billion With Maple Deal

Verizon Global Debt Sale Spree Tops $30 Billion With Maple Deal

Verizon Communications Inc.’s worldwide bond issuance to help finance purchases of 5G airwaves reached over $30 billion Tuesday after it sold debt in Canadian dollars.

The U.S. telecommunications giant priced C$1.5 billion ($1.2 billion) in two parts maturing in seven and 30 years, according to people familiar with the matter. Today’s Maple bond deal, or debt issued by foreign companies in Canadian dollars, is the firm’s second in the currency after raising C$1.3 billion last year.

“Today’s transaction highlights the continued strong investor demand and receptivity for Maple bond offerings from U.S. blue-chip companies,” said Jamie Hancock, managing director and head of Canadian capital markets at BofA Securities, one of the arrangers of the transaction.

The company’s C$1 billion of seven-year bonds got an order book over C$1.5 billion and the C$500 million 30-year portion saw orders above C$800 million in demand, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Verizon is very pleased with today’s Canadian investor participation in our global funding initiatives to support our investment in C-band spectrum as part of our strategy to lead in 5G in the United States,” Treasurer Scott Krohn wrote in an email, without providing details on the order book.

New York-based Verizon is leading telecom companies turning to the debt markets at a time when the race to purchase spectrum licenses is heating up. Its Canadian dollar deal follows debt transactions in U.S. dollars, euros and Australian dollars.

Last week it priced a $25 billion bond sale in the U.S. in the largest corporate bond issue so far in 2021. The company issued unsecured bonds in nine parts after drawing $109 billion of orders at its peak.

Read more: Verizon Sells $25 Billion of Bonds in Year’s Largest Offering

On Monday, the company priced 2.75 billion euros of bonds and early Tuesday it raised another 1.25 billion of Australian dollar bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.