Cerba sets price talk on acquisition term loan

A new €650 million non-fungible term loan C from Cerba HealthCare SAS has been talked at E+400 with a 0% floor offered at 99.5. At this pricing talk, the February 2029 debt will yield 4.15% to maturity.

A lender call was held this morning, and commitments are due Feb. 14 via joint physical bookrunners Goldman Sachs and UBS. Deutsche Bank, Natixis, J.P. Morgan, BNP Paribas and Mizuho are joint bookrunners.

The debt will carry six months of 101 soft call protection.

Proceeds from the deal will support the France-based laboratory group's acquisition of Labexa Group, Viroclinics and Project Milk.

Cerba has a corporate rating lineup of B/B2, and the debt will be rated B/B1. The issuer was last seen in the leveraged markets in October 2021 with an €850 million deal. That transaction also supported an acquisition and was split between a €300 million tap of its 3.5% secured notes due May 2028, a €350 million term loan add-on to its E+375 facility due June 2028 and a €200 million increase to its 5% unsecured notes due May 2029. Existing secured ratings are B1/B, and Chrome Bidco is the issuer.

Cerba is backed by EQT and PSP Investments, which took control of the group in 2021 backed by a €2.27 billion loan and bond financing.