Tricor Group finalizes terms on $760M loan backing buyout; allocations today

A Barclays-led arranger group has set final terms on the $760 million first-lien term loan backing the buyout of Tricor Group by Baring Private Equity Asia, according to sources. Allocations are expected today.

The seven-year covenant-lite term loan finalized at a spread of 400 basis points over the secured overnight financing rate plus a credit spread adjustment, with 0.5% floor and an original issue discount of 99, from price talk of Sofr+400-425 bps and an OID in the range of 99-99.5. The credit spread adjustment is 10 bps for the one-month rate, 15 bps for the three-month rate and 25 bps for the six-month rate. Lenders are offered six months of 101 soft call protection.

At final terms, the yield to maturity is approximately 4.76%.

The facility will have no ticking fee for the first 60 days, then the ticking fee will be 50% of the margin for days 61-90, stepping to 100% of the margin thereafter.

Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Nomura, MUFG, Credit Agricole and Standard Chartered are joint bookrunners on the deal. Barclays is the administrative agent.

Facility ratings are B/B2/B+, with recovery ratings of 3 from both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch. Corporate ratings are B/B2/B, with stable outlooks. Thevelia (US) LLC is the borrower.

Proceeds from the first-lien term loan, along with a preplaced $260 million second-lien term loan due 2030, will be used to finance Baring Private Equity Asia's acquisition of Tricor from Permira in a deal that values the business at $2.76 billion. The equity contribution is $1.8 billion, rating agencies noted. The acquisition was announced in November 2021 and is expected to close in the first half of 2022.

In addition to the term loans, the company will have a $130 million revolver with a springing first-lien net leverage covenant, according to Ratings.

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