Entain announces repricing of term loans & £600m add-on
Entain the global sports betting and gaming group, announces the successful repricing of two of its existing Term Loan B loans, and the pricing and allocation of fungible add-ons to those loans as follows:
USD term loan maturing October 2029
·Successful re-pricing of the existing $1,740m loan with the margin reduced by 75bps to 275bps2. The credit adjustment spread of 10bps was also removed. Additional $500m (c£400m) fully fungible add on with the same revised margin of 275bps2 over Term SOFR3, and allocated at an original issue discount of 99.875
EUR term loan maturing June 2028. Successful re-pricing of the existing €1,030m loan with the margin reduced by 50bps to 325bps.
Additional €235m (c£200m) fully fungible add on with the same revised margin of 325bp over EURIBOR, and allocated at an original issue discount of 99.75.
The add-ons will fund in mid-May 2024 and will both be swapped to GBP. Of these net proceeds £300m will be used to immediately repay the bank loan borrowed in Q1 2024, with the remaining c£295m net proceeds (after fees) available as incremental liquidity. As a result of this financing, the Group expects to minimise drawings under the RCF during the remainder of the financial year.
These refinancing actions are net debt neutral, improve the Group’s liquidity by c£295m, and extend the maturity date of the Group’s debt (replacing the bank loan due 2026 with term loans due 2028/2029).
The net impact of the re-pricing and add-on does not change the previously guided cash interest costs for the current financial year. However, with economic forecasts indicating a slower rate of interest rate reduction, we are taking a more conservative view of interest costs for the balance of the year. As a result, our revised guidance for cash interest for FY24 is now c£265m. The P&L interest charge, adjusting for IFRS16 interest and fee amortisation6, is expected to be c£285m.