Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank last week hit the market with a $150 million credit for travel reservation data company Worldspan. The deal backs the acquisition of Worldspan by Travel Transaction Processing Corp., a company formed by Citigroup Venture Capital Equity Partners--a private equity fund managed by Citigroup Venture Capital--and Teachers' Merchant Bank, the private equity arm of Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. The two entities are buying the Atlanta-based company from affiliates of Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines and American Airlines.
The credit includes a $100 million "B" loan and a $50 million revolver. Both tranches have price talk in the LIBOR plus 41/2-5% range, according to a banker familiar with the deal. He said there were a number of tickets in the book as of late last week, but he would not specify the subscription levels. J.P. Morgan and Citigroup are also agents on the facility, he noted.
Lehman and Deutsche Bank are offering investors incentive fees for lending to both the revolver and term loan. If buysiders chip in $15 million--$5 million toward the revolver and $10 million toward the term loan--they will receive 150 basis points up-front on the revolver and 100 basis points up-front on the "B" tranche. The agents, who are also leading a $315 million senior note deal for the company, will also pass along part of the fees from the bond deal to investors who sign up for both the revolver and term loan. The revolver has an undrawn fee of 50 basis points. Investors who only sign up for the "B" tranche still get the 100 basis points up-front, he added. Lehman and Deutsche Bank officials declined to comment and Dale Messick, Worldspan's cfo, did not return calls before press time.