SYDNEY, Feb 24 - Australian oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum Ltd plans to sell a U.S. dollar denominated benchmark bond issue with maturities of five and 10 years, market sources said on Tuesday.
Preliminary pricing suggests a margin around between 500 and 550 basis points over U.S. Treasury for both maturities, two of the sources said.
It would be the first issue by an Australian non-financial corporate since Telstra in October 2008.
The 144a reg S offer could price on Feb. 24, during New York business hours, one of the sources said.
The offer includes a put option at $101 in case the company changes ownership. Proceeds of the bond sale will help pay debt and finance the company's exploration programme.
Woodside funding officials are this week in the U.S. to meet with investors.
The issuer, Woodside Finance Ltd, is rated A- by S&P and Baa1 by Moody's.
Joint leads Credit Suisse, JPMorgan and UBS declined to comment.
Woodside said last week it was planning to source all its funding needs for 2009 of between $1-$1.7 billion through the debt markets.
The company's shares rose 2.5 percent on Tuesday, ending at A$33.60, after it revealed it had made a new gas discovery near its Pluto project in west Australia.
The firm is also reviewing its non-core assets outside of Australia to help fund the construction of its A$12 billion Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, Woodside's Chief Financial Officer Mark Chatterji said at a conference call last week.
Preliminary pricing suggests a margin around between 500 and 550 basis points over U.S. Treasury for both maturities, two of the sources said.
It would be the first issue by an Australian non-financial corporate since Telstra in October 2008.
The 144a reg S offer could price on Feb. 24, during New York business hours, one of the sources said.
The offer includes a put option at $101 in case the company changes ownership. Proceeds of the bond sale will help pay debt and finance the company's exploration programme.
Woodside funding officials are this week in the U.S. to meet with investors.
The issuer, Woodside Finance Ltd, is rated A- by S&P and Baa1 by Moody's.
Joint leads Credit Suisse, JPMorgan and UBS declined to comment.
Woodside said last week it was planning to source all its funding needs for 2009 of between $1-$1.7 billion through the debt markets.
The company's shares rose 2.5 percent on Tuesday, ending at A$33.60, after it revealed it had made a new gas discovery near its Pluto project in west Australia.
The firm is also reviewing its non-core assets outside of Australia to help fund the construction of its A$12 billion Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, Woodside's Chief Financial Officer Mark Chatterji said at a conference call last week.
