After two-and-a-half months of attempting to reprice its bank debt, General Growth Properties has finally managed to get it done. The deal cleared the market with the new terms, including a $2 billion "C" loan, which replaces the term loan "B." Pricing on the new "C" is LIBOR plus 2%, a 25 basis point cut. Protection was added so that the document requires a 100% vote in order to do another repricing.
This should conclude the end of a saga that began in April, when the company tried to bypass lead banks, Bank of America, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse First Boston and Wachovia Securities by bringing a 50 basis points price cut on the loan in exchange for a fee of 10 basis point straight to investors. This attempt did not get off the ground.
The facility also includes a $500 million revolver and a $3.65 billion "A" term loan. Lehman and CSFB were joint leads on the repricing, while Wachovia and B of A are leads on the pro rata. All four banks were bookrunners. The office of Bernard Freibaum, cfo, declined comment.