Meetings and greetings

Mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners ING and UBS have launched syndication of the €445m debt package supporting Doughty Hanson‘s secondary buyout of TMF Group. Prior to launch, the Bank of Ireland joined as a mandated lead arranger.

Senior debt is split between a €80m seven-year term loan A paying 275bp over Euribor, a €92.5m eight-year term loan B at 325bp, a €92.5m nine-year term loan C at 375bp, a €30m revolver and a €50m acquisition loan. In addition there is a €100m mezzanine loan.

Lenders are now being invited into the senior debt on tickets of €20m for 140bp or €10m for 115bp. The junior portion has already been successfully syndicated.

Leverage is set at 4.3x senior debt, rising to 5.9x total. These multiples are expected to fall by a full turn over the next year, given the highly cash-generative and low-capex nature of the business. The equity contribution is a chunky 55%, meaning the senior debt totals 32% of the capital structure.

As a secondary buyout, TMF already has a banking group in-situ and it is hoped that this, combined with the conservative structure and strong credit, will ensure the deal navigates an increasingly tricky leverage market.

The last fortnight saw relatively frenetic activity on the bank meetings front.

A bank meeting was held for the €970m all-senior facilities backing the buyout of Xella, after what bookrunners said was a successful early-bird phase. Debt backing the acquisition of Xella by PAI Partners and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners from Haniel Group closed and funded on August 29.

Global co-ordinators are BNP Paribas, RBS and UniCredit (HVB). They and mandated lead arrangers Calyon and LBBW have been joined ahead of closing by Erste Bank, KfW, Mediobanca, Commerzbank, HSH Nordbank, WGZ and GE. Tickets of €25m for 110bp and €15m for €95m are offered.

Facilities are split between a €270m seven-year term loan A paying 300bp over Euribor, a €275m eight-year TLB paying 375bp, a €275m nine-year term loan C paying 425bp, a €75m seven-year revolving credit facility paying 300bp and a €75m seven-year acquisition/capex line paying 300bp.

Net senior and total leverage at closing was 2.9x based on 2007 adjusted Ebitda of €271m, and has since fallen to 2.7x based on July 2008 adjusted LTM Ebitda. Equity and quasi-equity is approximately 50%.

There was a bank meeting for mandated lead arranger Dresdner Kleinwort‘s general syndication of £334m of senior facilities for Domestic & General (D&G). Subordinated tranches have been pre-placed. Advent International completed the acquisition of UK domestic appliance insurer D&G through a successful offer for its shares listed on the London Stock Exchange in December 2007.

Barclays Capital and RBS have now been joined by BNP Paribas and RBC as bookrunners and mandated lead arranger on the £255m of debt facilities backing the buyout of Bodycote Testing Group by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.

Debt is split between a £46m seven-year amortising term loan A paying 300bp over Libor, a £50m eight-year bullet TLB paying 350bp, a £50m nine-year bullet term loan A paying 400bp, a £35m seven-year revolving credit facility paying 300bp, and a £20m seven-year capex/acquisition facility paying 300bp. A £54m 10-year mezzanine facility pays 450bp cash and 600bp PIK and is NC2/102/101.

Opening net senior leverage is 3.7x and net total leverage is 5.1x. The facilities will be denominated in sterling, US and Canadian dollars and euros. There will be a carve-out of the B and C loans for institutional investors. Syndication is expected to launch in late September.

Elsewhere Rio Tinto’s sale of Alcan Engineered Products looks likely to go to private equity and would require a multi-billion debt facility.

3i is in talks with lenders with a view to financing its €330m acquisition of a 75% stake in Spanish funeral services business Memora Inversiones Funerarias. The business is being acquired from energy and construction giant Acciona.