The €230m seven year term loan ‘B’ tranche had originally been marketed with a price of 475bp over Euribor. But the margin was raised to 500bp following US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments on planned tapering of quantitative easing.
“The book was covered, but because of market conditions we had to raise the price,” said a lead banker on the deal.
The new debt also comprised a €15m six year revolver and €30m six year acquisition and capital expenditure facilities with margins at 425bp over.
Private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners bought Webhelp in 2011, backed by €200m of loans. The loans comprised €165m of drawn facilities priced at 500bp over and €60m undrawn at 425bp over.
Already then, Charterhouse had struggled to meet its targets: it had hoped to raise a further €25m, and to price the term loan ‘B’ tranche at 475bp over. As a result, more of the €340m buy-out came from equity provided by the PE firm.
Founded in 2000, Webhelp has 16,500 employees in offices across France, Morocco, Algeria, Romania, Belgium, UK and Madagascar. It had a turnover of €220m in 2012.
