Bertelsmann Announces Eurobond

Bertelsmann has announced the issue of a Eurobond. On offer starting today, the bond is expected to have a volume of EURO 500 million and a maturity of seven years. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and JP Morgan are the consortium leaders. The bond will be issued under the EMTN (Euro Medium Term Note) program, which has a BBB (Standard & Poor's) and Baa1 (Moody's) rating. Bertelsmann plans to use the funds from the bond to pay down existing bank loans and intensify the company's financing from capital market funds.

The announcement of the bond was preceded by a three-day investor update in Amsterdam, Duesseldorf, London, Paris and Frankfurt last week. On this update, Bertelsmann gave investors an overview of the international media and entertainment company's situation and future plans.

Bertelsmann had announced the issuance of a Eurobond in June 2002, but then postponed the transaction to a later date due to developments in the capital market. The present issue follows Bertelsmann's successful $500 million private placement in the U.S. in April.

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1_PM_Eurobond_engl.pdf	55 kB