Cortefiel PE owners mandate Goldman Sachs to find buyer willing to refinance EUR 1.172bn loan - report (translated)
02 MAR 2017
Cortefiel PE owners CVC, PAI and Permira have mandated Goldman Sachs to sell the Spanish apparel retailer for EUR 1 plus debt, El Confidencial reported. According to the 1 March Spanish-language item, which cited several financial sources, the owners are looking for a buyer to refinance a EUR 1.172bn loan.
Cortefiel lenders, Banco Santander, CaixaBank, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland and Societe Generale among them, have mandated Houlihan Lokey to defend their positions, the report said. They fear that the company will need a debt write-off to survive, according to the report.
The 1.172bn loan - signed by the PE firms in 2006 to acquire Cortefiel and charged to the company; provisionally renewed in March 2016 and due in 12 months - is listed on the secondary debt markets at 76% of its nominal value, the report went on to say. This means that the market takes for granted that creditors will have to accept debt haircut of between 25% and 35% on the EUR 1.172bn outstanding, losing between EUR 300m and EUR 410m of the cash granted to CVC, PAI and Permira a decade ago, the report said.
Cortefiel closed its 2016-2017 results on Thursday (28 February), El Confidencial added without giving any further details.