CVC Said to Seek $1.5 Billion in Leveraged Loans for Ahlsell Bid
February 29, 2012, 4:02 AM ESTBy Patricia Kuo
Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- CVC Capital Partners Ltd., the buyout firm that owns Formula One, may raise about 9.9 billion Swedish kronor ($1.5 billion) of leveraged loans to back its bid to buy Ahlsell AB, a Swedish construction products supplier, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The private-equity firm is in talks with lenders for the financing that may include a 3 billion kronor term loan A, 1.5 billion kronor of revolving credit and an acquisition facility paying initial interest at 5 percentage points more than benchmark lending rates, said the person, who declined to be identified because the talks are private.
The deal will also include a 5.4 billion kronor of term loan B denominated in the local currency and euros at an interest margin of 5.5 percentage basis points, the person said.
Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Nordea Bank AB are in negotiations with CVC to provide the loans, the person said.
CVC is in exclusive talks to buy Stockholm-based Ahlsell from Goldman Sachs and Cinven Ltd., people with knowledge of the talks said on Jan. 30. CVC had four weeks to complete the financing of its bid, the people said.
Ed Moore, a spokesman in London for CVC, declined to comment.
Cinven and Goldman Sachs bought Ahlsell in 2006 for 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion), according to the private-equity firms website.
Ahlsell, which distributes heating and plumbing products and other construction equipment in the Nordic region, Russia and Eastern Europe, had revenue of 19.3 billion kronor and earnings before interest, taxes and amortization of 1.25 billion kronor in 2010, according to the company’s website.
--Editors: Faris Khan, Chapin Wright
To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Kuo in London at pkuo2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Faris Khan at fkhan33@bloomberg.net
