NextPharma offers price talk on €290M term loan

Price talk on the €290 million term loan from NextPharma GmbH is E+425-450 with a 0% floor offered at 99, following a lender call earlier today. Replies are due by 10 a.m. London time on Feb. 25, via a group led by sole physical bookrunner J.P. Morgan and joint bookrunners Societe Generale CIB and ING.

Guidance suggests a yield of 4.50%-4.76%. Proceeds support the acquisition of two facilities from Lonza, facilitate a fund-to-fund transfer for sponsor CapVest, and refinance debt. CapVest first invested in NextPharma in 2017 in a deal backed by a unitranche loan provided by Barings and Barenberg. Bowtie Germany is the borrowing entity, and first-time ratings will follow. The seven-year term loan comes with six months of soft-call protection at 101.

NextPharma announced the acquisition of Lonza's Ploermel in France and Edinburgh in the U.K. sites in a statement on Jan. 19. The assets specialize in Lipid Oral Dosage Forms, including softgels and liquid-filled hard capsules for the pharma and nutrition markets.

NextPharma is a European pharmaceutical Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization. Not including the newly acquired assets, the firm has a footprint that spans five sites in Germany, one in France and one in Finland, alongside healthcare logistics services in the DACH region.