NXP wipes out an extra $504 mln in debt buyback

AMSTERDAM/LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - NXP Semiconductors [NXPSM.UL] said on Thursday its debt buyback offer had met with about a 70 percent take-up rate, as the company agreed to pay $211 million in cash to wipe out $504 million in debt.

NXP, one of Europe's largest privately owned firms, had offered to buy back $300 million in unsecured dollar and euro bonds to cut leverage and interest costs at between 37.5 to 47.5 percent of face value. [id:nL51001056]

Company spokeswoman Lieke de Jong-Tops said in total $504.2 million in notes had been tendered to the offer and that NXP would pay $211 million in cash to cancel the notes.

The company said it accepted for purchase all of the first priority and second priority notes and had also agreed to buy 45.7 percent of the third priority notes properly tendered.

In March, NXP cut its debt by about $465 million in another debt-swap restructuring deal [ID:nLV232338], when it exchanged $420 million and 131 million euros ($174 million) of senior bonds into $90 million and 29 million euros of new notes.

"It's certainly better than the last time, when the company saw around a 50 percent take-up for an exchange into super senior secured notes," said Stephan Haber, a credit analyst at UniCredit (HVB).

"It shows that investors have reached a point where they think they are getting a fair price," he added.

NXP, formerly the chips arm of Philips Electronics (PHG.AS) until it was sold off to private equity firms in 2006, had said in April it owed its lenders almost $6.5 billion as it struggled with declining revenues amid the industry-wide downturn. ($1=.7087 Euro) (Reporting by Natalie Harrison and Aaron Gray-Block; Editing by Hans Peters)