Empresa de Energia de Bogota SA ESP

Colombia's EEB Plans to Sell $710 Million in Seven-Year Bonds

By Guillermo Parra-Bernal

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

(Bloomberg) -- Empresa de Energia de Bogota SA ESP, Colombia's second-biggest electricity transporter, may sell $710 million of seven-year bonds to European investors as soon as today, people familiar with the offering said.

EEB, as the Bogota-based company is known, originally had planned to sell $500 million of the senior, unsecured notes, said the people, who declined to be identified because terms aren't set.

The company offered yesterday to pay 9 percent for the issue, the people said. Demand for the bonds led EEB to increase the size of the sale, they said, pushing the yield down to 8.875 percent.

The securities, which may be redeemed before maturity, are being sold by EEB International Ltd., the international finance unit.

Proceeds will help repay $1.5 billion of debt used to acquire Empresa Colombiana de Gas SA, or Ecogas, in December. EEB expects Standard & Poor's to rate the bonds BB, two levels below investment grade. Fitch Ratings rated the bonds an equivalent BB.

To contact the reporter on this story: Guillermo Parra-Bernal in Sao Paulo at gparra@bloomberg.net