STT looks for new ways to refinance Eircom's debt

Eircom's major stakeholder Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT) is considering how it's going to refinance the Irish service provider's $4.4 billion of debt.

This latest development contradicts an earlier report in May where Peter Cross, Eircom's CFO, said he had no plans to refinance its debt. However, Ireland's Communications Minister Eamon Ryan spent time talking to Terry Clontz, STT's managing director and CFO Stephen Miller, about refinancing plans prepared by Gleacher Shacklock and JP Morgan.

A combination of new telecom competition and the global recession attributed to the telco's revenue decline from $2.0 billion to $1.7 billion in the nine months that ended March 31.

As has been the trend of many incumbent service providers, Eircom's wireline service revenue was down 9 percent year-on-year to about $1.3 billion. Included in these figures was the addition of 12,000 DSL lines, a decline from the 19,000 it added during the same period last year, while it only lost 15,000 landline subscribers versus the 21,000 it lost in Q2 2009.

Along with the refinancing of its debt, one service that could become a potential boost to Eircom's sluggish wireline revenue base could be its ongoing Fiber to the Home (FTTH) investments.

 For more:
- see Eircom's earnings release
- TeleGeography has this story

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