Sazka Group schedules call for €500M, two-part bond offering

Czech-based lottery operator Sazka Group a.s. announced plans to raise a combined €500 million via a tap of its existing 3.875% secured bonds due 2027 and the sale of new six-year euro secured floating-rate bonds.

Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are joint bookrunners on the transaction (B&D). A global investor call will be held tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. London time, which will kick off a roadshow starting the same day. BNP Paribas, Erste Group, HSBC, Societe Generale and UniCredit are additional bookrunners.

The existing €300 million tranche of 3.875% 2027 notes, which are issued at Czech group level, was placed in January 2020 at a discount to par for a 4% yield and closed Jan. 26 at 99.75 for a 3.931% yield, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. The new FRNs due 2028 will be callable at par after one year and will be issued via a newly incorporated U.K. operating entity Allwyn Entertainment Financing (UK) PLC. The split is yet to be determined.

Banks are guiding secured ratings at BB- at S&P Global Ratings and BB- at Fitch. Proceeds from the offering will refinance existing debt, including a €55 million scheduled term loan A amortization and potentially fund bolt-on acquisitions.

The KKCG-backed group has €200 million of 4% notes issued by Sazka Group Financing a.s that mature in December 2022 and €300 million of 4.125% notes due 2024 that are callable in February at 102.0625. The group reported operating EBITDA of €363.6 million for the nine months ended September 2021, with Greece and Cyprus as the largest contributors with €207.5 million.