World’s largest PC maker plans to use the proceeds to buy back shares and strengthen its financial position amid sustained growth
Lenovo Group, the world’s largest personal-computer (PC) maker, plans to raise US$2 billion through a convertible-bond offering, with the proceeds earmarked to repurchase existing debt and buy back shares.
The Hong Kong-listed company’s proposed zero-coupon convertible bonds will mature in 2033 and can be exchanged for 426.9 million shares at an initial conversion price of HK$36.70, or US$4.68 a share, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing on Thursday.
“Lenovo’s convertible bond issuance is more of a capital structure decision rather than an urgent need for cash infusion,” said Jing Jie Yu, an equity analyst at Morningstar. “Lenovo is occasionally acquisitive, and keeping a moderate level of debt with healthy maturities on its balance sheet allows it to better manage its overall cost of capital when engaging in merger and acquisition activity.”
Yu added that the planned use of the proceeds would not be out of the ordinary. Even without share buy-backs, assuming that all of the existing 2029 convertible bonds were cancelled and the latest bond issuance was fully converted, the net dilution effect would only be roughly 3 per cent – largely immaterial to existing investors, Yu said.
Shares of Lenovodropped 1.45 per cent to HK$24.52 on Thursday morning trading. Part of the proceeds would be used to repurchase the company’s US$675 million convertible bond due in 2029, which carries a 2.5 per cent coupon. The remaining proceeds would fund on-market share repurchases and general corporate uses, the company said.
Lenovo said the transactions would extend its debt maturities, cut funding costs and help limit near-term dilution for existing shareholders.