Deutsche Bank and ABN Amro are shopping a bank deal for Buhrmann , a Netherlands-based distributor of office products and graphic systems to the business-to-business market. The new credit is a cross-Atlantic deal comprising a $360 million "B" loan, a E320 multi-currency revolver, and a E200 million "A" piece. Price talk on the euro tranches is LIBOR plus 21/ 2% and pricing for the dollar piece is LIBOR plus 3%. Bank meetings were held in both Amsterdam and New York last week. The new bank deal and a E114 million convertible subordinated bond issue will refinance the company's existing senior credit.
One dealer said while there was a lot of "positive momentum" for the bank debt in Europe, the euro side has not yet received any commitments. "They've gotten a lot of commitments on the New York [side]," he added. Commitment levels on the U.S. debt could not be determined by press time. The company had some issues in the past, but management has done a good job in navigating Buhrmann through the downturn, said one buysider. The company has also been able to complete some "nice asset sales that righted things a little bit," noted another dealer, adding that he thought the deal was well priced. The credit was upgraded just over a month ago to Ba3 by Moody's Investors Service. Now, "With the ratings improvement everyone is jumping on the bandwagon," the buysider added. Calls to Kees Bangma, Buhrmann's corporate finance and group treasury director, were not returned by press time.