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Telecom giant buying back debt

Friday, March 14, 2003 | 9:53 a.m.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Sprint Corp. said Thursday it's offering to buy back $2 billion of bonds maturing in the next two years to lower debt and improve its credit rating.

Sprint is the No. 3 U.S. long-distance telephone company and the main local phone company in Las Vegas.

The company will pay cash for the 5.7 percent notes due in November and for the 5.875 percent bonds maturing in 2004, Sprint said.

Sprint sold $1 billion of the 2003 notes in 1998 and $1 billion of the 2004 securities in 1999 to fund wireless-service growth as demand for telecommunications bonds soared. It plans to trim debt to about $14 billion by the end of 2004 from about $20.3 billion now.

Chief Executive William Esrey, who is leaving the company, has been paring jobs and expenses to prevent credit downgrades.

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