KEY POINTS:
CCMP Capital Asia and Teachers' Private Capital plan to appeal to New Zealand investors to help fund their purchase of Yellow Pages through the issue of capital notes this year.
It is understood that the consortium - which was advised by ABN Amro New Zealand - won the Yellow Pages bid over other private-equity firms in part because they were prepared to issue NZ listed capital notes, which are similar to bonds.
CCMP Capital Asia said that in partnership with Teachers' Private Capital it would work with Telecom to provide a "priority allocation" to Telecom's shareholders.
The consortium was likely to issue redeemable notes, with interest of 8-9 per cent, to be listed on the New Zealand Exchange's debt market, said a source familiar with the transaction.
Should Yellow Pages eventually hold an initial public offering, note holders would be given a 2.5 per cent discount on the IPO price.
The consortium had not yet determined how much of the $2.24 billion Yellow Pages purchase price would be funded by NZ investors.
CCMP Capital Asia and CVC Asia bought the telephone directory business from SingTel, Singapore's telecommunications company, in June 2003. Just over a year after making the acquisition, the private-equity partners floated an initial public offering of Singapore Yellow Pages shares reaping $213 million, a gain of 2.6 times their initial investment, while still retaining shares worth another S$50 million.
