VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Teck Resources announced another round of note redemption to the value of $214-million on Friday, expecting interest expense savings resulting from the redemption of about $10-million a year, on an after-tax basis.
The Vancouver-based diversified miner has issued a notice of redemption to redeem, on June 7, all of the about $84-million principal amount of its 3% notes due in 2019 and all of the $130-million principal amount of its 8% notes due in 2021.
Teck expects to record an estimated net after-tax accounting charge of about $19-million as a result of the redemption.
The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, as trustee, has distributed the notice of redemption to registered holders of the notes. Teck expects to fund the redemptions from cash on hand.
With the additional profits and cash flow generated from higher commodity prices, Teck took the opportunity to further strengthen its balance sheet by buying back $1-billion of its outstanding notes in March. In the last eighteen months, Teck has reduced the principal amount of its outstanding notes by $2.1-billion, with $5.1-billion of notes still outstanding as at March 31.
The company’s debt to debt-plus-equity ratio over the same period has declined from 36% to 27%.