Flag Ltd, the Bermuda registered company that owns and manages the world’s longest undersea cable, the 28,000 km $1.5bn fiber optic link around the globe, linking Europe to the Middle East and Asia, has managed to restructure its debt, in an effort to put itself onto a more secure long term financial footing. The Flag venture, majority owned by Bell Atlantic Corp and Cable & Wireless Plc, is not the more usual alliance of telecoms vendors, but instead is backed by a group of investors and operates as an independent profit making company. Telecoms companies buy slices of the 40Gbps bandwidth on offer. Flag has placed $435m in ten year 8.25% yield bonds, with the $370m remainder of its debt as straight bank debt. Company chairman Andres Bande claimed that the offer was oversubscribed by three times, something that he says validates the unusual approach.
