Seat deal with RBS proceeds as bond closes

Italian yellow pages group Seat Pagine Gialle's deal with top creditor Royal Bank of Scotland Plc will go through, a financial source said on Friday, as Seat raised €550 million in a bond issue to pay back debt. The bond was originally planned at 650 million euros, but Seat had to cancel a floating rate tranche of it due to "weak market conditions," the company said, making the bond an exception in a recent series of oversubscribed bond issues. "The deal with RBS goes through," the source said, asking not to be named. He said Seat scaled down the bond because "in the last two days some investors pulled out" as US plans to limit financial risk-taking sent markets lower. Earlier in January, RBS gave its approval to Seat issuing the bond to pay back senior debt in a deal that cuts the British bank's exposure to the heavily indebted company and gives Seat financial breathing room to restructure. Like other print directories groups, Seat entered the downturn with high debt, which has limited its ability to restructure its business and compete with giant Internet companies like Google Inc.