Kellwood offers to repurchase debt

Kellwood Co. has begun a $60 million buy back of debt using part of the proceeds from the $162 million sale of its Smart Shirts business.

The offer applies to notes with a coupon rate of 7.875 percent which mature in 2009. Under the terms of the offer, the company will pay $1,035 per $1,000 principal amount of notes tendered on or prior to 5 p.m. Jan. 23. Notes tendered after that time, will be eligible to receive $1,005 for every $1,000 tendered.

The tender offer will expire at midnight, eastern standard time, on Feb. 6 unless extended or earlier terminated.

In November, Kellwood that it would use proceeds from the sale of its Smart Shirts division to repurchase shares and reduce debt. The repurchase program is expected to take up to nine months to complete. On Tuesday, Kellwood said the sale of the division had been completed.

Last week the Town and Country based apparel marketer said it entered into a $80 million accelerated share repurchase agreement with Bank of America that will allow it to buy about 18 percent of its outstanding shares based on the company’s current stock price.