Mixed fortunes in primary

By
Brad Meikle
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The syndication by bookrunners Barclays and Goldman Sachs of €863m senior facilities backing the buyout of Dutch industrial consortium Stork by Candover is understood to be progressing well, though the going is slow and the deal has yet to close.

Other large deals in either senior or general syndications are also making slow progress.

HSBC, GE, Lloyds TSB and RBS launched an anchor syndication phase for the debt facility of close to £850m backing Apax and GMG‘s buyout of Emap in early April, which has yet to close. Banks said the bulk of mezzanine and some of the senior debt had been placed.

Barclays and HSBC, which closed a senior phase of debt backing KKR‘s buyout of Northgate Information Solutions in April, have yet to close a general phase, and Morgan Stanley‘s CHC Helicopter deal shows few outward signs of progress.

Bookrunners RBS and UniCredit have closed syndication of US$444m of credit facilities backing the refinancing of Qioptiq‘s 2006 acquisition of Linos and a 2008 add-on acquisition of Point Source. Commerzbank and DZ Bank joined the transaction as mandated lead arrangers early in the process. The deal closed oversubscribed.

Bookrunner and coordinator JPMorgan, and bookrunners BNP Paribas, Commerzbank and Unicredit have closed and are set to allocate the €415m debt package backing Paine & Partners‘ buyout of German gas spring manufacturer Stabilus.

Safety-Kleen bookrunner RBS has been joined at the top level by ING and Lloyds TSB on Warburg Pincus‘ tertiary buyout from JPMorgan Partners and CCMP Capital Advisors. The deal is understood to be backed by £300m of debt.

Barclays, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and RBS (nee ABN AMRO) are set to relaunch the loan backing Mediaset‘s buyout of a 75% stake in Endemol, the European media group. Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch are mandated lead arrangers and underwriters.

The hung deal was mandated in June 2007 and pulled from syndication during the early throes of the credit crisis last August. Given the vintage and structure of the deal, the leads will rely on deep discounting to sell down the debt.