Stahl had wanted to raise the €585m leveraged loan in order to refinance debt and pay a €280m dividend to its shareholders. French investment company Wendel, which owns a 75.3% stake in Stahl, was in line to receive €210m of the payment.
For one investor, surveying the mounting bank meeting invitations on his desk, the size of the dividend had been enough to relegate the deal.
Some eyebrows were raised among these who did attend the bank meeting. Stahl's management decided to use one of their team’s leather handbags to demonstrate the quality of their product. It was an approach that went against the grain of normal lender presentations, said another investor who declined the deal.
Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas were arranging the transaction.
"Stahl’s refinancing is postponed as terms currently offered to Stahl are not sufficiently optimised to motivate the company to proceed now with the refinancing syndication,” Wendel said in an emailed statement.
“Markets have been extremely crowded in the last few days on the back of the recent Greek agreements," the investment firm added. "Stahl believes it can get better terms at a later stage when volumes normalise and is therefore suspending its debt syndication process in the meantime."
Stahl launched the deal as leveraged loan issuance began a steep ascent two weeks ago. The facility was in competition with LBO deals such as Verallia, at the larger end of the market, and Weener Plastic, in the midmarket.
Added to that was the frenetic pace of activity in the European high yield bond, which last week recorded the busiest week in its history, according to one US bank.