Former Credit Suisse banker Barry O’Callaghan certainly knows how to crunch the numbers.After spending a staggering $9bn on acquisitions within the past year, the founder of once-publicly listed educational firm Riverdeep has been busy bedding down financing – a task that could have been made all the more difficult in the current climate.
Not so, perhaps, for O’Callaghan.
His educational outfit, now called Education Media and Publishing Group (EMPG) and one of the largest educational publishing groups in the world, has been busy in the past week courting institutions to take on syndicated debt.
Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers and Citigroup are spearheading the syndication of $7.15bn of EMPG’s debt, with one presentation already having been made in
The debt pile has been accumulated following Riverdeep’s reverse takeover last year of Houghton Mifflin for roughly $5bn, and the $4bn purchase earlier this year of Harcourt, the
Among the investors getting in line as part of the overall deal, is Davy Stockbrokers, which is forking out $235m in new equity financing.
The syndication consists of a $4.95bn first-lien term loan, a $1.7bn second-lien term loan, and a $500m revolving facility.
The first-lien term loan is apparently being priced at 375 basis points above Libor (London Inter-Bank Offer Rate). The 12-month rate is currently around 4.637%.
That compares to recent deals, including Chrylser’s $12bn bank loan arranged during the summer. A first-lien amount of $10bn was initially priced at 325 points above Libor, but was subsequently raised to 375.
It must be a hairy time going to the markets to look for financing for big deals, but having pulled off the two biggest coups of his life, it’s unlikely that anything fazes O’Callaghan these days.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKN2953978220071029?rpc=44
http://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKN1227507220070112
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN1942939320070719
http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2007/07/22/story25306.asp
http://www.hmco.com/company/investors/invest/ir_release_112906.html
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