Financing in brief

Barclays and ING as MLAs are out with the £617m all-senior debt backing Provident Equity Partners’ buyout of retailer Phones 4U. Prior to launch Bank of America joined at the top level. Lenders are now invited to join on £25m for 85bp or £15m for 70bp. The facilities are split between a £100m seven-year term loan A at 225bp over Libor, a £201m eight-year term loan B and a £201m nine-year term loan C at 300bp, a £85m seven-year revolver at 225bp and a £30m seven-year capex line at 225bp. Leverage is 3.1x net debt to Ebitda.

• The €547.7m equivalent loan backing UK sponsor MeCom’s buyout of the Norwegian media company Orkla Media has launched, through MLAs Bank of Ireland, CIBC and SG. Debt comprises: a NKr846.7m seven-year term loan A1 at 200bp over Libor, a DKr211.4m seven-year term loan A2 at 200bp over Libor; a NKr528.4m eight-year term loan B1 at 250bp over Libor; a €64.5m eight-year tern loan B2 at 250bp over Euribor; a NKr528.4m nine-year term loan C1 at 300bp over Libor; a €64.5m nine-year term loan C2 at 300bp over Euribor; a NKr593.3m seven-year acquisition and capex line at 200bp over Libor; and a NKr395.6m seven-year revolver at 200bp over Libor. Total net debt to Ebitda on the all-senior deal is 4.4x. A single €30m equivalent ticket paying 70bp upfront is on offer.
• After a huge oversubscription, Gartmore has reduced the margin on the syndicated portion of its £310m buyout loan, via bookrunners Goldman Sachs and HSBC. The syndicated portion of the loan consists of a £300m seven-year B loan, which now pays 237.5bp down from 250bp over Libor. Syndication was targeted entirely at institutional investors with just a few bank buyers invited. In addition to the B loan, there is an unsyndicated £10m revolver. The loan backs Hellmann & Friedman’s circa £500m buyout of the fund manager which is being sold by US financial institution Nationwide.
• Target Express has mandated GE Commercial Finance to arrange a £130m refinancing of the £210m secondary MBO from March 2000. The sponsors, 3i and Gresham Trust, are refinancing the deal to reduce the mezzanine and take out a small amount of equity. The mezzanine tranche has been reduced by half and £16m of equity is being taken out, however the original £62m of equity will largely remain, with the equity takeout being funded mainly from the extra £10m slug of equity put into the deal in 2002. The refinancing comprises a £27.5m seven-year A loan priced at 225bp over Libor, a £26.25m eight-year B loan at 275bp and a £26.25m nine-year C loan at 325bp. There is also a £10m 9-1/2-year second-lien priced at 525bp and the 10-year mezzanine is for £30m for an undisclosed margin. A bank meeting is scheduled for October 16.