AutoForm schedules investor call for €472M TLB backing Carlyle buyout

AutoForm Engineering GmbH will hold an investor call at 11 a.m. London time on Jan. 18 to launch a €472 million term loan B backing its buyout by Carlyle and to refinance debt.

The seven-year covenant-lite facility will carry six months of 101 soft-call protection. Corporate and issue ratings are B/B2, with an S&P recovery rating of 3.

Credit Suisse, Jefferies and RBC are physical bookrunners on the deal, while KKR, SMBC and Standard Chartered are bookrunners. Commitments are due Jan. 25.

Carlyle acquired Switzerland-based industrial software provider AutoForm from Astorg, which had owned the firm since 2016 when it bought it from family shareholders. That deal was backed by a €198 million covenanted term loan B and a €54 million pre-placed second-lien. The borrower was most recently seen in July 2017, when it repriced its term loan alongside an add-on.

AutoForm develops and markets software sheet-metal forming simulation and Body in White (BiW) assembly simulation, mainly for the automotive industry. It employs roughly 400 people and is present in more than 50 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia and the Americas.