Cuisine de France's owner Aryzta has decided to pay back the remaining €200 million of its most expensive hybrid debt-equity instruments. Picture Nick BradshawAryzta, the Zurich-listed baked goods business behind the Cuisine de France brand in Ireland, said on Wednesday it plans to repay the remaining €200 million of its most expensive hybrid debt-equity instruments as it continues to restructure its balance sheet following a tumultuous few years.
The company, which saw its centre of gravity move from Dublin to Zurich in 2020 following a boardroom coup, said last June that it planned to repurchase or repay all of its then €250 million of hybrid euro bonds on a phased basis between 2023 and 2025. It moved within weeks of to repurchase an initial €50 million of the notes at a 4 per cent discount to their par value. The group has now elected to redeem the remaining so-called perpetual bonds, which carry an interest rate of 6.8 per cent and have no maturity date, at the end of March, well ahead of the original plan.
The company will still have a further 590 million Swiss francs of hybrid notes, carrying rates of between 3.5 and 5.3 per cent after the euro-denominated instruments are redeemed.