Grenke AG — Capital/Financing Update 2003

Oct 14, 2003

News Details

Corporate | 14 October 2003 18:00

GRENKELEASING AG english

GRENKELEASING Markets Debut Euro Bond Corporate-news announcement sent by DGAP. The sender is solely responsible for the contents of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– GRENKELEASING Markets Debut Euro Bond Baden-Baden, October 14, 2003: GRENKELEASING AG sold a EUR 200m bond with a life of three years and a coupon of 4.5 percent to institutional and private investors on October 13, 2003. The Bonds will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and introduced to the Frankfurt OTC market (Freiverkehr). Deutsche Bank and WestLB acted as Joint Lead Managers. As already reported, the transaction was made under GRENKELEASING’s new EUR 500m debt-issuance programme, which will be used as a standardised framework for future borrowings. “GRENKELEASING will use the proceeds of this bond issue to repurchase receivables from HP International Bank. This option was granted to us by HP this summer. On balance, we will be able to reduce our interest expenditure”, explained Wolfgang Grenke, chairman of the board of GRENKELEASING AG. Higher borrowings did not make sense at the moment, given the rise of interest rates in recent days, and were not required. On the other hand, the debt- issuance programme gave GRENKELEASING sufficient scope for further profitable growth. GRENKELEASING AG had obtained a first-time rating from Standard & Poor’s in May 2003. On this basis, the Company’s unsecured debut bond was rated “BBB”. About GRENKELEASING AG Following the opening of two further branches in Rostock and Magdeburg, GRENKELEASING is currently represented in 20 German cities. The Company entered the UK market in April, so that GRENKELEASING now maintains a presence in twelve foreign locations. In addition to its four French locations, it has one each in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Great Britain. The start-up in Sweden and Poland is planned for the near term. GRENKELEASING AG is Germany’s nationwide market leader in small-ticket IT leasing, i.e. for products such as PCs, notebooks, copiers, printers or software up to a purchase price of EUR 25,000. GRENKELEASING AG has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2000. Since April 2003, the Company has been included in the SDAX (small cap) index. Information on the Company and its products is available on the Internet under http://www.grenkeleasing.de . Press contact GRENKELEASING AG, Neuer Markt 2, 76532 Baden-Baden Renate Hauss Tel: +49 (0)7221/5007-204 Fax: +49 (0) 7221/5007-112 Email: investor@grenkeleasing.de end of message, (c)DGAP 14.10.2003 ——————————————————————————– WKN: 586590; ISIN: DE0005865901; Index: SDAX Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin- Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, München und Stuttgart 141800 Okt 03