OREANDA-NEWS. March 20, 2015. Telecom Italia SpA has launched an offering of unsecured equity-linked bonds, seeking up to 2 billion euros (\\$2.1 billion) to help fund a recently announced investment plan.

The heavily indebted Italian phone group said last month it would spend 14.5 billion euros in the next three years on laying more fibre optic cables in Italy and upgrading its mobile network in Brazil.

Telecom Italia also said on Thursday it will convene a shareholders' meeting to seek approval for a share issue to serve the bond conversion. The bonds, which will mature in 2022 and will be offered to qualified institutional investors, are expected to pay a coupon of between 0.875 and 1.375 percent a year, payable semi-annually starting from September this year.

The conversion price is expected to be set at a 70 percent premium above a reference price equal to the volume-weighted average price of the shares on the Milan bourse on March 20.

The final principal amount, coupon and conversion price will be announced on March 20. Settlement is expected on March 26.

BNP Paribas and JPMorgan are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners of the offering. Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse and UniCredit are also acting as joint bookrunners.