Esprinet has established its first Euro Commercial Paper Programme. The programme is an unrated, multicurrency, STEP labelled programme with a maximum outstanding of 300 million euros. The ECP programme will enable the company to issue debt over the next three years with maturities up to 12 months. It will allow the Company to diversify its short-term financing instruments, to achieve a wider spectrum of funding sources and optimize its debt management in terms of maturity profile and pricing.
Founded in the 1970s as a semiconductor distributor in Italy, Esprinet is currently a leader in Southern Europe (Italy, Spain and Portugal) in the business-to-business distribution of branded IT products, mobile phone devices and related accessories to resellers aimed at both consumer and business end users and own-brand products made by third parties.
In addition, Esprinet offers European clients its expertise in advisory and cybersecurity, as well as a selection of products and services to buy or rent through an extensive network of professional resellers (cloud services, cybersecurity software, video conferencing systems, advanced IT infrastructure solutions and specialized consumer electronics solutions).
Esprinet is listed on the Italian Stock Exchange since 2001 with a current market capitalization of >268 million Euros, consolidated revenues of 4,684 million Euros and an EBITDA Adj. of 90.7 million Euros as of December 2022. The Group employees over 1,800 people and operates with +130,000 products, 31,000 dealers business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customers (B2C) and 650 partner producers.
PKF Attest is acting as Programme Coordinator and Arranger of the programme, and as a permanent Dealer together with Banca Akros, BNP Paribas, Bred, Intesa Sanpaolo and TP ICAP. Clifford Chance and Chiomenti acted as the Legal Advisors of the Dealers and the Company respectively and Bank of The New York Mellon is the Paying Agent.
Esprinet joins other Italian listed companies who have CP programmes in place, like Maire Tecnimont, Fincantieri, Leonardo, Enel, ENI, Snam and Terna among others.
Commercial Papers are an efficient source of funding
Commercial Papers are short-term money-market securities used as a funding source by financial institutions, as well as governments, supranational agencies and mid and large corporations.
For corporate issuers, Commercial Papers are an extremely efficient funding source, that is complementary to banking facilities and credit lines. It is an efficient working capital solution via Debt Capital Markets.
Commercial Papers are issued under a shelf programme with a predetermined maximum outstanding size, and that are renewable annually (or every 3 years for STEP label). CPs may be issued at a discount or at a premium, they may bear fixed or floating rate interest, although they most usually carry an implicit coupon.
Maturity of Notes ranges from 1 to 364 days for ECP (European Commercial Paper Programmes), up to 24 months for Spanish Pagarés and up to 36 months for Italian Cambiali Finanziarie.
Commercial Papers are multi-currency instruments that can be issued in different currencies, predominantly in EUR, USD, CHF and GBP. They have a minimum denomination of €100K and are intended for wholesale institutional investors, both national and international.