Search results for

Wachovia Securities and Bear Stearns are planning to launch syndication after Labor Day of an amended and restated credit for DRS Technologies to partially back its $550 million acquisition of Integrated Defense Technologies (IDT). A banker explained that add-on institutional term debt would be put in place on top of a refinanced credit facility. He did not state the size of the expected add-on debt, as details are still being finalized. DRS' existing credit includes a $125 million revolver priced at LIBOR plus 23/4% and a $213.6 million "B" loan priced at LIBOR plus 3%. A Bear Stearns official declined to comment and a Wachovia Banker did not return calls.

Loral Space & Communications bank debt traded in the 96-97 context last week after the company received an informal offer from EchoStar Communications Corp. to purchase six North American satellites for about $1.05 billion. Loral has already reached a definitive agreement to sell the satellites to Intelsat for approximately $1.1 billion in cash. The sale of the satellites to Intelsat was approved by antitrust regulators last week. "It looks like something is going to happen here," said one trader. The bank debt was a touch stronger from the 942/3 - 952/3 level where it was quoted at the beginning of last week, according to LoanX.

International Multifoods was able to refinance its credit without an institutional loan this time around after reducing its debt by more than $225 million since Nov. 2001, said John Byom, senior v.p. and cfo of the consumer foods and foodservice products company. The new credit is for $250 million and includes a five-year, $175 million revolver and a $75 million amortizing term loan. Byom said the covenants on the new pro rata deal are more flexible, as debt levels have been reduced due to repayments from strong operating cash flow and from proceeds from the sale of the company's foodservice distribution business.

The new $200 million credit for B&G Foods backing the company's $116 million acquisition of the Ortega food brands businesses from Nestlé Prepared Foods Co. is expected to add scale and diversity to the company's business. Ortega, a shelf-stable Mexican food brand, is expected to bring in 20% of B&G sales. But since Ortega has operated as a part of Nestlé's business, it may have benefited from the large-scale company's advantageous input and distribution relationships. While B&G has tried to adjust the numbers to reflect some of these concerns, the results remain to be seen, noted Helen Calvelli, a v.p. and senior credit officer for Moody's Investors Service. Going forward, B&G also plans to change the brand's marketing strategy, she added.

FirstEnergy Corp.'s bank debt traded in the secondary loan market for the first time last week on speculation of potential repercussions stemming from the blackout of Aug. 14. An $8 million piece of the company's bank debt traded out of an original lender around the 963/4 context, according to market players. The credit protection for FirstEnergy was also said to have been extremely volatile at the beginning of last week. "That tells me that people are jumping in [to the credit protection]," one banker said. Dot Matthews, a CreditSights senior analyst who follows the name, said the credit is a bit of a moving target. "Here is a situation that we are looking at with a potential liability that we can't quantify," she said.

J.H. Whitney is said to be winding down the J.H. Whitney Market Value Fund, a collateralized debt obligation that is invested in a mixture of senior secured loans, bonds, warrants, equity and some CDOs. A source said the fund has been suffering from significant decline in the market value of the fund's assets for over a year, leading to failures in the overcollateralization (OC) tests. The losses are not primarily in the loans, another source said. J.H. Whitney officials referred calls to Dan O'Brien, managing director and cfo, who did not return them.

Cube Acquisition Corp., an entity controlled and created by Trimaran Capital Partners and Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, has closed on a $170 million credit backing the $450 million acquisition of Packaged Ice. The deal's $135 million "B" loan was heavily oversubscribed, said Bill Phoenix, managing director at Trimaran, noting that pricing on the tranche was flexed down from LIBOR plus 31/2% to LIBOR plus 3% during syndication. Pricing on the "B" loan is also tied to a leverage-based grid with step-down provisions to the LIBOR plus 23/4% pricing level, he added. The deal also includes a $35 million revolver. There is a $150 million high-yield component included in the acquisition, he noted.

A $5-10 million auction of Edison Mission Midwest Holdings' bank debt was said to have failed last week after the seller of the paper was unable to receive the desired price for the loan. Dealers said the seller was looking for a better price than the 82-84 market where the paper was quoted. The identity of the seller could not be confirmed. One trader said the market has stopped talking about the fundamentals of the company and is just looking for levels for where the bank debt is trading. Prices for the bank debt have been sliding downward from the 90s since late last month.

ABN Amro priced a A$750m securitisation this week for Australian Mortgage Securities Ltd (AMS), the joint largest domestic deal of the year.

Six shortlisted banks - Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and UBS - gave presentations this week to the management of Pertamina, Indonesia's oil and gas company, for its debut issue in the international bond markets.

CSK Corporation on Monday sold ¥20bn of convertible bonds into the Euroyen market and achieved the highest ever conversion premium to date for a Japanese issuer.

Australia