Resolution Performance Products is continuing to aggressively pay down the debt on its term loans "A" and "B" with over $69 million repaid since the loan was signed on Nov. 14, 2000. Another voluntary payment of $7 million was made last week and now no mandatory debt repayments are required until September 2004, though when Resolution can it will continue to reduce the debt load, according to Travis Spoede, executive v.p., and cfo. "At the inception [the roadshow] there was a commitment to aggressively repay the debt," explained Spoede. "Interest is high priced and since there were no suitable acquisition opportunities, more value is created by reducing debt," he added. "What else can we do with the cash?" he asked. Pricing is at LIBOR plus 33/4 %, according to Capital DATA Loanware. Spoede declined comment on the interest savings.
If an acquisition is sighted, the company can use the undrawn $150 million revolver, Spoede added. At the time of a recapitalization last year, $54.1 million was paid down on the revolver. The term loan "A" is $100 million denominated in Euros and the "B" term loan is $350 million. Salomon Smith Barney is syndication agent, Morgan Guaranty is documentation agent and Morgan Stanley is the book runner. The pay downs were generated through a mixture of excess cash flow and a recapitalization, with asset sales forming a small component of the debt repayment. Maturity is at the end of 2006 for the Euro loan and at the end of 2008 for the "B" loan. "Even though every cfo wants to refinance on more favorable terms, there are no plans in the works," Spoede stated.