I missed this other RCN item...
cbs.marketwatch.com
RCN closes $1 billion credit line
Communications provider eyes further growth
By Steve Gelsi, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 4:46 PM ET Jun 4, 1999
NewsWatch
PRINCETON, N.J. (CBS.MW) -- RCN Corp. said Friday it closed a $1 billion line of credit with Chase Securities for the communication firm's growing fiber optics network.
RCN (RCNC: news, msgs) said the new bank facility, transactions in the public and private equity markets and the company's current cash
position leave it with about $2.5 billion in available capital.
Shares of RCN jumped 1 13/16 or 4 percent to 45 5/8 on Friday.
"Our current cash position not only fully funds RCN's initial phases of construction, it demonstrates a very high degree of support for the RCN business plan from a wide variety of capital markets and thousands of individual investors," Bruce C. Godfrey, RCN executive vice president and CFO, said in a statement.
RCN has been focused on securing regulatory authority to offer its combination of Internet, phone and TV service to businesses and consumers, building its fiber optic network and winning new customers.
In 18 months, the firm has won federal approval to serve seven million homes and local licenses covering 4.3 million of them.
"We have also raised nearly $3 billion in cash and, in areas where we have been marketing our bundled services for six months, we are achieving penetration rates on voice and video we didn't expect to see for two years," RCN Chairman and CEO David C. McCourt said in a statement.
Since it became a public company in late 1997, RCN has conducted transactions in the debt, equity, bank and private equity markets.
It raised about $345 million through the sale of RCN common stock, which included the full exercise of the underwriters' overallotment option. In March, RCN raised $250 million through the sale of senior convertible preferred stock. |
