In brief

Calyon, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers have been mandated to arrange the debt backing Permira’s €1.725bn buyout of Unilever’s European frozen food business. The sale includes the total frozen food portfolio under the Iglo and Bird’s Eye brands in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal and the UK. Unilever will retain its frozen food business under the brand name Findus in Italy.

The €2.448bn amendment and €355.2m add-on backing BC Partners’ secondary buyout of Brenntag, the German chemical distributor, from Bain Capital has closed well oversubscribed through MLAs Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. In view of the oversubscription, the leads have flexed down the margins on the B and second-lien tranches.

The new €165m eight-year B6 tranche now pays 250bp over Libor, down from 275bp, and the €93.5m 9-1/2 year second-lien is down to 600bp from 650bp. The add-on facilities also include a pre-placed €96.7m 10-year bullet mezzanine piece paying 500bp cash and 400bp PIK. The buyout follows June’s €390m add-on to a €1.889bn recapitalisation signed in January. As Brenntag had been so recently recapitalised, the new sponsor decided against a full refinancing.

SG, RBS and Bank of Scotland have won the mandate to arrange a US$445m equivalent loan to back Bridgepoint’s secondary buyout of motorcycle Grand Prix organiser Dorna from CVC. The loan will be launched in mid-September. Dorna was last in the market in 2005 with a US$245m recapitalisation through SG.

Limburg Media Group is in the market with the €138m loan backing Mecom’s buyout of the company, through bookrunner Barclays and MLA Bank of Ireland. Debt includes a €36.9m seven-year term loan A at 225bp over Euribor, a €28.7m eight-year term loan B at 275bp, a €28.7m nine-year term loan C at 325bp and a €15m seven-year revolver at 225bp. There is also a €28.7m 10-year mezzanine tranche paying 10.5% split between cash and PIK. Total net debt to Ebitda is 5.6x, while senior net debt to Ebitda is 4.3x. Banks will earn 80bp for €20m and 70bp for €15m.

Bank of Scotland and Barclays have been mandated to arrange the debt backing the unsolicited SKr15.6bn bid from Apax Partners and Nordic Capital for Swedish healthcare group Capio.

Goldman Sachs and HSBC, as MLAs and bookrunners, are out with the £310m loan backing Hellmann & Friedman’s circa £500m buyout of fund manager Gartmore, which is being sold by US financial institution Nationwide. The syndicated portion of the loan consists entirely of a £300m-equivalent seven-year B loan paying 250bp over Libor. That facility has a 60/40 split between euros and dollars.