Financing in brief

Barclays and RBS have won the mandate to arrange the circa £500m facility backing Dubai Investment Corp’s secondary buyout of Travelodge from Permira. The loan will launch this month.

Stirling Capital Partners has mandated ING to arrange the €195m debt package supporting its majority buyout of Metroweb, the owner and operator of the largest open fibre optics network in Milan. The loan includes a €145m senior element a €10m second-lien piece priced at 550bp over Euribor and a €40m mezzanine facility paying 10% over Euribor. The sponsor is buying a 76.5% stake in Metroweb, with vendor AEM, the Milan gas and electricity utility, retaining a 23.5% stake. Syndication is expected to launch at the end of September.

UK cereal maker Weetabix has completed its £617.6m recapitalisation through MLA JPMorgan. Lion Capital is the sponsor. The facility is heavily oversubscribed.

The amendment takes out the previous 2005 deal’s mezzanine debt and initially added £65.75m to the B tranche and £15.75m to the C tranche, and added a £100m PIK loan to pay the sponsor a dividend. However, all of the £81m was eventually added to the B tranche, which was flexed down to 225bp.

Prismian (formerly Pirelli Cables) has wrapped up its €450m recapitalisation oversubscribed through MLAs Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Lehman Brothers. The deal takes out the company’s subordinated debt and pays a dividend to sponsor Goldman Sachs Private Equity. €360m has been added to the B tranche and €90m to the C tranche.

The subordinated debt, which is being taken out, was a €150m 9-1/2 year second secured facility at 700bp over Euribor. Dresdner Kleinwort is out with a £140m recapitalisation for the Care Management Group, an Isis and ICG company. After a bank meeting in London last week, syndication is expected to close in two weeks.

MLA Dresdner Kleinwort is also out with a €179m debt package supporting Industri Kapital’s secondary buyout of Sportgroup, a German maker of sports surfaces, from ECM. Senior debt includes a €40m seven-year term loan A at 225bp over Euribor, a €27m eight-year term loan B at 275bp over Euribor and a €27m nine-year term loan C at 325bp.

There is a €30m mezzanine tranche and a €40m working capital loan and a €15m acquisition finance facility. Leverage is 5x total net debt to Ebitda and 4x senior net debt to Ebitda. Syndication is expected to wrap up in around two weeks.