(Reuters) – Spanish sports management business Dorna Sports is raising up to 250 million euros (US$345 million) of new leveraged loans to pay a dividend to private equity owner Bridgepoint and shareholders.
Bridgepoint bought Dorna in 2006 from CVC, and last year Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) made a 39 percent equity investment in the company.
It will be the second dividend to be taken out of the company after it conducted a 420 million euro dividend recapitalisation in 2011. A dividend recapitalisation is a process whereby existing debt is refinanced and increased so a dividend can be taken.
Societe Generale, Bank of Ireland, Goldman Sachs and Nomura are arranging the new deal, which will be showcased to institutional investors at a bank meeting on Thursday in London.
Bridgepoint was not immediately available to comment. The loan will be split roughly between 218 million euros of senior term loans and 32 million euros of second lien loans. The loans are expected to be denominated in euros and dollars.
The new loan will add to Dorna’s existing debt, which will total around 615 million euros of senior loans and 100 million euros of second lien loans.
This is the latest dividend to be raised in Europe’s leveraged loan market as borrowers take advantage of liquid markets where cash-rich investors are eager to do deals amid a lack of M&A activity.
Bridgepoint is also in the market with a 305 million pound (US$507 million) dividend recapitalisation for U.K. life sciences testing services company LGC, where a 120 million pound dividend will be taken. Blackstone is set to take a 320 million euro dividend payment from its Dutch trust and corporate management business Intertrust Group a year after acquiring the business.
By Claire Ruckin
(Editing by Christopher Mangham)
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
If you do not receive this within five minutes, please try and sign in again. If the problem persists, please
email: subscriptions@peimedia.com.