Securitization People and Markets

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

Reader's Digest is in the process of negotiating a covenant change on its credit facility, said a company spokesman. Reader's Digest acquired Reiman Publications for $760 million in cash in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2002 and the Pleasantville, N.Y.-based company financed the deal with bank debt. J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs lead the loan that includes a $600 million "B" piece. Debt levels reached as high as $950 million, said the spokesman.

The $100 million "B" loan for Worldspan, a travel reservation data company, was oversubscribed last week. There was early speculation that investors might not take to a credit for a company related to the ailing air travel industry, but buysiders oversubscribed the deal in under a week. Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank lead the facility. The $150 million credit for the Atlanta-based company backs the acquisition of Worldspan by Travel Transaction Processing Corp., a company formed by Citigroup Venture Capital Equity Partners--a private equity fund managed by Citigroup Venture Capital--and Teachers' Merchant Bank, the private equity arm of Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. The private equity entities are buying Worldspan from Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines and American Airlines.

BNP Paribas launched syndication last week for Wackenhut Corrections Corp.'s $150 million credit backing the company's purchase of Wackenhut shares held by majority shareholder Group 4 Falck, a Danish security firm. A banker familiar with the deal said investors had oversubscribed the six-year, $100 million "B" loan ahead of the Wednesday bank meeting, but the lead bank was still accepting more investors into the tranche. Price talk for the institutional loan is LIBOR plus 33/4%, while the five-year, $50 million revolver is being shopped at LIBOR plus 3%. The revolver is being offered with an up-front fee of 50 basis points, the banker noted. A BNP official declined to comment.

Credit Suisse First Boston is set to lead a credit backing the $1.2 billion acquisition of school yearbook and class-ring maker Jostens. CSFB's private equity fund DLJ Merchant Banking III LP is acquiring the company from Investcorp, MidOcean Partners, First Union Leveraged Capital and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance. Through the transaction, DLJ will pay $500 million in cash and assume $537 million of Jostens' debt and other securities.

The European arms of BNP Paribas, Barclays Bank, Credit Suisse First Boston and The Royal Bank of Scotland are set to lead a bank deal backing what could be the largest European takeover by private equity firms. BC Partners, CVC Partners and Investitori Associati are buying 62% of the directories business from Italy's biggest phone company, Telecom Italia SpA, for E3 billion, which is equivalent to $3.5 billion. If the buyers are able to buy the rest of the unit owned by other investors, the purchase price could rise to E5.7 billion. The sale of the yellow pages business, called Seat Pagine Gialle, will help shed some of Telecom Italia's E40 billion debt load.