Foncia launches €1.275B term loan as part of jumbo refi and recap deal

Foncia Groupe has launched a €1.275 billion, secured term loan B as part of a new €1.925 billion package that will refinance the firm's existing senior credit facilities and pay a €475 million shareholder dividend.

A lender call will be held at 9 a.m. U.K. time on March 11, with commitments due March 18 via joint physical bookrunners BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs and Natixis. The new cov-lite term loan will carry six months of 101 soft-call protection.

BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Natixis are global coordinators on the transaction, while BofA Securities, Credit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING, SMBC and Unicredit are joint bookrunners. Credit Suisse is a mandated lead arranger.

The new transaction will also include a €250 million offering of junior unsecured debt, and €400 million of other first-lien secured debt.

Foncia is a French real estate services company, which is also active in Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. The firm was bought out by Partners Group in 2016, in a €1.832 billion transaction backed by an €828 million term loan maturing September 2023. Since then the loan has been revisited multiple times, including most recently via a €110 million, cov-lite fungible term loan add-on in July 2019, which was used to refinance the firm's second-lien loan. The term loan was quoted in the secondary market around 99.750/100.375 before the refinancing was announced.