(Bloomberg) -- Greek phone operator Wind Hellas is this week marketing a new bond with a mid-4% coupon, but those yields may come with a catch.

A footnote in the bond documentation states that 210 million euros ($229 million) of the proceeds are for general corporate purposes that also includes “potentially the financing of shareholder liquidity,” according to a prospectus seen by Bloomberg News.

That clause could leave the door open for the company’s majority owners, GoldenTree Asset Management LP and Cyrus Capital Partners LP, to pay themselves a large dividend using cash generated from the bond sale.

“Don’t be fooled by ‘General Corporate Purposes’ use of proceeds and opening net leverage,” Steven Hunter, CEO and founder of high-yield analytics firm 9Fin Ltd., said in client note Tuesday. “It is safer to treat this as a dividend recap.”

Representatives for Wind Hellas and GoldenTree did not reply to requests for comment. A Cyrus spokeswoman declined to comment on the financing.

Financial sponsors -- typically a private equity firm -- are increasingly tapping into demand from yield-hungry bond investors to borrow against the companies they invest in, also known as a dividend recap. Such a move saddles the issuing company with more debt and means the shareholders are less exposed to financial loss if the business struggles. That could ultimately weigh on how the bonds perform in the secondary market.

“In these conditions it’s a great time for sponsors to derisk via dividend recaps, but with PMIs globally flashing red there’s nervousness about where a recap deal will be trading in six months’ time,” 9Fin’s Hunter said separately in emailed comments.

Last month Pinewood Group priced a bond deal that handed back to Aermont Capital LLP the full equity contribution it paid for the film studio in 2016. Blackstone Group LP also recently used the bond market to take back over half of the equity it injected into Cirsa Gaming Corp, a year after buying the company.

These shareholder actions are among the reasons prompting calls that Europe’s high-yield market is nearing its top.

--With assistance from Ruth McGavin.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Benitez in London at lbenitez1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at vrodrigues3@bloomberg.net, Charles Daly

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