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Amadeus announces an agreement to refinance its current bank debt through a new senior unsecured credit facility.
The agreed refinancing is structured via a “club deal” carried out by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A., The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch, ING Belgium, S.A. Sucursal en Espana, J.P. Morgan plc., Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc., NATIXIS, and The Royal Bank of Scotland, plc., in order to obtain senior unsecured credit facilities of a total of €2.7 billion.
This new senior credit facility will be structured under the following tranches:
- Tranche A: €900 million loan with a four and a half year maturity from the date of the agreement. The average duration of the loan is three years when considering the annual amortizations expected. Tranche A is a facility that can be partially withdrawn in USD.
- Tranche B: €1.2 billion bridge loan with initial maturity of one year, plus two optional extensions of six-months each, at the election of the Company.
- Tranche C: €400 million bridge loan of six months plus one optional extension of six months at the election of the Company.
- Tranche D: €200 million revolving credit facility with a two year maturity period from the date of the agreement. The average length of the credit facility is 1.33 years when considering the amortizations expected.
The bridge loan (Tranche B) will allow access to capital markets (bonds) as the Company’s intention is to diversify its sources of financing.
Tranche C is also a bridge loan which will be repaid with the proceeds of the sale of Opodo, Ltd. as soon as the deal receives the corresponding approval of the competition authorities.
Additionally, Tranche D is a revolving credit facility that could be used to cover working capital needs.
Ana de Pro, Chief Financial Officer, Amadeus, said, “With this agreement we achieve one of the objectives set out in our long-term strategy, to strengthen the financial structure of the business through less expensive and more flexible debt. Through this deal we take the first step towards giving Amadeus more flexibility through extended maturity periods and improved terms and conditions. In addition, once the bridge loan (Tranche B) has been taken out with bonds, Amadeus will have diversified its sources of financing. Overall, this refinancing will allow us to significantly decrease the cost of servicing our debt, which currently has a spread of around 3.60 per cent. The refinancing agreed has an initial cost (over the variable interest rate of Euribor / US Libor) of 1.14 per cent, calculated considering the current level of leverage and the weighting of the various factors of the financing However, the final cost of our debt will depend on several factors, namely the future degree of leverage of the company, the extent to which we use the extensions contemplated in the bridge loans, and the eventual margin of the bonds that will substitute the Tranche B loan.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
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