Spark New Zealand is considering raising up to $150 million through a retail bond offer in a bid to take advantage of low interest rates to raise debt funding.

The Auckland-based company’s Spark Finance subsidiary plans to make an offer of up to $100 million unsecured, unsubordinated seven-year bonds to institutional and retail investors, with oversubscriptions of up to $50 million, it said in a statement. The bonds will mature in March 2023.

Spark did not give any indication on potential pricing, but the seven-year swap rate was recently at 3.315 per cent, having declined from 4.03 per cent at the start of the year.

The bond offer will follow other companies who have turned to the debt market to raise cash as interest rates remain low, including Auckland International Airport, SkyCity Entertainment Group, Contact Energy and Infratil.

Last month, AMP Capital Investors (NZ) head of fixed income and MD, Grant Hassell, predicted more firms would return to the debt market where they could raise money cheaply.

In September, Spark beefed up its bank funding lines with a new $100 million facility with Westpac NZ, having ditched a near-identical facility with that bank in March.

The company scaled back plans for capital expenditure in the current year to about $380 million from the $576 million it spent in the year ended June 30, which included a $158 million price tag for extra 700 megahertz radio spectrum.

The company says it is expected that full details of the offer will be released in the week beginning November 30, when the offer is expected to open.

Spark Finance has appointed ANZ Bank NZ and Commonwealth Bank of Australia as joint lead managers and Deutsche Craigs as co-manager.

Spark shares fell 1.8 per cent to $3.20, and have increased 4.7 per cent this year.