HG bonds: Crown Castle International inks $750M offering for refinancing; terms

Crown Castle International Corp. today completed a $750 million offering of 2.90% five-year senior notes at T+120, or 25 basis points through early whispers.

The wireless communications tower operator intends to use the net proceeds to repay a portion of the outstanding indebtedness under its commercial paper program and pay related fees and expenses, according to regulatory filings. As of March 1, 2022, Crown Castle had about $889 million of outstanding commercial paper notes under the program.

The BBB-/Baa3/BBB+ ratings profile reflects stable outlooks on all sides. Fitch today said the rating reflects expectations the company will maintain net leverage (net debt/operating EBITDA) around 5x going forward. "The tower industry has strong tailwinds as 5G network deployments accelerated in the latter half of 2021 and will continue over the next few years in the C-Band and 3.45GHz spectrum bands," Fitch noted.

Crown Castle last placed new notes June 15, 2021, when it completed a $750 million public offering of 2.50% 10-year senior notes due July 15, 2031, at T+103, primarily backing the repayment of senior secured tower revenue notes and commercial paper. The notes changed hands on Tuesday in the T+155 area, or at 3.26%, according to MarketAxess.

Fitch today noted that Crown Castle does not have material maturities until 2023, when $1 billion of secured notes come due, and when Crown Castle is expected to repay $250 million of secured tower revenue notes due 2043.

Terms: