Vodafone Ukraine (VFU), Ukraine’s second-largest mobile operator, which has repurchased approximately $24.4 million worth of its own Eurobonds since late May of last year following several offers related to dividend payments, has announced another similar tender at 98% of par value for a total of $1.17 million.
As noted in a statement on the Irish Stock Exchange, the company previously made another monthly dividend payment on May 5 in the amount of 60.18 million UAH.
Applications to participate in the tender are being accepted through May 19, and settlements are scheduled for May 26.
Bonds maturing in February 2027 with a coupon rate of 9.625% per annum were issued for $300 million. Their redemption is related to the fact that on April 24, 2025, VFU announced the accrual of dividends to its shareholder in the amount of UAH 660.245 million ($15.9 million at the exchange rate specified in the announcement) for 2024. In accordance with National Bank restrictions, these dividends will be paid in separate monthly installments in hryvnia equivalent to EUR1 million. The company emphasized that under the terms of the bond issue, in such a case it must offer all bondholders the opportunity to submit an application to sell their bonds for an amount equal to the dividends paid outside Ukraine.
In the first two tenders, mobile operator “Vodafone Ukraine” repurchased bonds in an amount equivalent to EUR1 million. The initial repurchase was announced at 99% of par value, the second at 90% of par value. The company did not announce the results of the second buyback on the exchange, while the bid-to-cover ratio for the first buyback was 0.0040355668.
Following the third tender, where the buyback price was reduced to 85% of par value and the offer was capped at $4.67 million, “Vodafone Ukraine” received bids totaling $53.395 million and satisfied them in the amount of $5.208 million. The scaling factor was 0.1315451889487317.
The fourth tender was announced on August 13 but was subsequently extended seven times. As a result, the redemption price was increased from 85% to 98%, and the redemption amount to $10.84 million. The company received bids totaling $127.14 million for this amount. Some of the bonds were returned to their holders due to the inability to split the face value, while the rest were accepted with a scaling factor of 0.1150681.
In the fifth through ninth bond buyback tenders held from December to April, the price was again 98%: in the fifth tender, with bids totaling $1.165 million, the scaling factor was set at 0.01901; in the sixth tender, with bids totaling $1.475 million – 0.04234; in the seventh, with bids of $1.185 million – 0.3246; in the eighth, with bids of $1.18 million – 0.0333333; and in the ninth, with bids of $1.16 million – 0.449.
Overall, based on the results of the nine tenders, the total nominal value of bonds remaining in circulation is $275.64 million.
As reported, mobile operator VFU increased its revenue by 14% in 2025 compared to the previous year—to 27.8 billion UAH—while its net profit rose by 18%—to 4.18 billion UAH.
