News in brief

• The roughly €1.45bn loan backing Cinven‘s buy-out of French clothing retailer Camaieu, with Calyon, BNP Paribas and RBS as MLAs, may go into a second phase of syndication for its senior and second lien tranches, though the residual underwriting is, of the MLAs said, “not colossal”. Camaieu is a French retailer of women’s fashions with around 557 stores that has been expanding into Poland, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic and Belgium. Axa Private Equity is selling its 64.5% stake in the group, which is not the only retailer to have faced a strong headwind in trying to syndicate a loan in the current market.

• The £940m debt package for Doncasters, mandated to CS and RBS, has allocated following a reinstatement of the initial pricing on the B, C and second-lien tranches. The 100bp price cuts on both the mezzanine and PIK tranches remain in place.

• Arcapita is moving towards mandating banks to support its €775m acquisition of HT Troplast, the Germany-based manufacturer of PVC windows and door fittings. The Bahraini-based group is buying the group from Carlyle and Advent, two years after the duo acquired the group from Ruetgers. In 2006, Carlyle and Advent refinanced the €197m of debt in the original 2005 buyout, with Commerzbank launching a €100m senior debt recapitalisation package. Troisdorf-headquartered HT Troplast had net sales of more than €800m (US$1.075bn) in 2006. The business, which has 3,750 employees and distribution sites in 21 countries, develops, manufactures and markets plastics for windows and doors.Carlyle and Advent are understood to have paid approximately €300m to buy HT Troplast in January 2005. Carlyle acquired a 55% stake, Advent the remaining 45%. At the time of the acquisition, HT Troplast had reported net sales of €770m for 2004.

• CIT Capital Finance has completed the £53m debt package supporting the Rutland Partners backed buyout of Pulse Home Products, a leading UK branded goods maker. Rutland has acquired Pulse and other brands from Alba for £51.5m. As well as this CIT-arranged facility, Rutland has invested around £25m. Pulse Home Products is responsible for brands including Breville, Nicky Clarke, JCB, Bush, Dirt Devil, Hinari and Power Devil.