Cleary Gottlieb acted as underwriters’ counsel for British Telecommunications plc’s (BT) offering of $1 billion 3.25% senior notes due 2029 and $500 million 4.25% senior notes due 2049, each guaranteed by BT Group plc.
The joint bookrunning managers for the offering were Barclays Capital Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Santander Investment Securities Inc., BNP Paribas Securities Corp., BofA Securities Inc., HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets plc, MUFG Securities Americas Inc., NatWest Markets Securities Inc., Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ), SMBC Nikko Securities America Inc., and SG Americas Securities LLC. The offering closed on November 8, 2019.
BT is one of the world’s leading communications services companies, serving the needs of customers in the United Kingdom and 180 countries worldwide. Its main activities are the provision of fixed-line services, broadband, mobile, and TV products and services as well as networked IT services. Cleary served as counsel to the underwriters in the second and third stages of BT’s privatization in 1991 and 1993 and served as designated underwriters’ counsel for BT’s shelf registrations from 2000 until 2019. The offering is BT’s first U.S. dollar-denominated debt issuance in reliance on Rule 144A and Regulation S since deregistering its debt securities with the SEC earlier in 2019.