Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank are leading a $453.4 million deal for HIT Entertainment, a London based children's entertainment company. The facility consists of a six-year, $77 million revolver and a seven-year, $376.4 million term loan "B." Pricing on the revolver is LIBOR plus 2 1/4% and LIBOR plus 2 1/2% on the "B."
The deal launched Wednesday afternoon and backs the leveraged buyout by Apax Partners. According to Moody's Investors Service the purchase was priced at 12.4 times LTM EBITDA or about 20% over premium trading value. Apax contributed about 50% of the financing with sponsor equity.
Moody's assigned a B1 rating to both tranches. It estimates that pro forma for the transaction and as of LTM at the end of April, leverage was about 6.5 times debt-to-EBITDA. Calls to HIT and Apax were not returned by press time.