NEW YORK-AirTouch Communications Inc. sold $650 million of debt July 11 to help pay for its acquisition of Cellular Communications Inc.
The two-part issue of senior unsecured debt comprised $250 million of five-year notes priced at 99.851 to yield 7.161 percent, and $400 million of 10-year notes priced at 99.425 to yield 7.583 percent.
New York-based Lehman Brothers Inc. is lead manager for the sale of these securities, which received a BBB+ rating from Standard & Poor’s Corp. and a Baa-2 rating from Moody’s Investors Service Inc. J.P. Morgan & Co. and Salomon Brothers Inc. also are offering the notes.
Most of the proceeds from the debt offering will be used to satisfy the cash component of AirTouch’s CCI acquisition, with the remainder used for general corporate purposes.
In early April, AirTouch entered into a merger agreement with CCI to acquire all of the CCI’s capital stock, about 62 percent, that it doesn’t already own. The approximate purchase price is $1.65 billion.
With the acquisition of New York-based CCI, AirTouch, headquartered in San Francisco, will add five million proportionate pops, bringing its domestic cellular portfolio to nearly 43 million pops.
Worldwide, AirTouch has nearly six million customers.
