The term loans of FleetPride and Texas Petrochemicals both broke in the secondary market. Texas Petrochemical's $280 million term loan broke at 100 3/8 before settling at 100 1/4. FleetPride's $160 million term loan broke at 100 1/8 and traded up to 100 1/4. Both deals ended up pricing at the high end of the spectrum before making their debut in the secondary market. The Texas Petrochemical deal, which is covenant lite, priced at LIBOR plus 2 1/2%. Original price talk was in the LIBOR plus 2 1/4-2 1/2% range (CIN, 4/21). FleetPride's term loan was flexed up to LIBOR plus 3%; original pricing was LIBOR plus 2 1/2% (6/9). The higher pricing on the loans pleased investors. "They are fairly priced deals," said one buysider.
The Texas Petrochemical financing, which also contains a $70 million letter of credit facility, backs the $296 million acquisition of the U.S. butadiene and related methyl tertiary butyl ether operations of Huntsman Corp. (6/9). Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse andLaSalle/ABN AMRO lead the deal, which includes a $115 million asset-based revolver.
Bank of America and Deutsche Bank lead the FleetPride financing, which backs the leveraged buyout of the company from a group led by Aurora Capital Group, which includes: Brentwood Associates, Investcorp and Banc of America Capital Investors (CIN, 6/9). Timothy Gadus, cfo of FleetPride, was on vacation and could not be reached. A call to a Texas Petrochemical's spokeswoman was not returned.