US LevFin Wrap — BofA sweetens Kohler deal and ION Markets struggles despite upbeat loan market

David Bell

2 February 2024•6 min read

Lenders have been complaining for weeks about the lack of new money opportunities in the primary market, yet they weren’t exactly scrambling over each other to finance Platinum Equity’s LBO of Kohler Energy this week.

On Wednesday, Bank of America priced Kohler’s $1.64bn of dual-currency TLB debt 100bps wide of initial price talk, making it one of a few deals that had a slightly trickier path through the loan market in spite of a rosy overall market picture.

Loan funds enjoyed their biggest inflows in the past three months and average spreads are just 1bp above their lowest level since May 2022, according to JP Morgan, but lenders are still cautious about taking on too much risk.

In the case of Kohler Energy we covered investor concerns about margins, growth, and risk associated with a carveout from a family-owned conglomerate for the generator company under a notoriously aggressive sponsor. But there were also plenty of reasons to like the credit, so the price widening came as a surprise to some.

"It's a surprising outcome especially in this market with the demand for new paper,” said a banker following the deal. “There's modest leverage and the Kohler family is keeping a big stake.”

Trading software provider ION Markets might have fared worse, with bankers reportedly pulling the dual-currency $1.7bn repricing TLB on Friday after delaying the syndication deadline from Tuesday in an attempt to give investors time to digest a soft earnings report — and some negative headlines surrounding the parent company’s stack of private debt.

Big dog

These were the exceptions, however, as for the most part borrowers were able to upsize, accelerate and tighten the pricing on their primary deals — including a refinancing by another Platinum portfolio company, Husky Injection Molding.

Deutsche Bank and BofA landed $2.75bn of Husky bond and loan debt below price talk and a few hours ahead of schedule. The financing was also boosted from an initial $2.6bn, which allowed Platinum to reduce the size of its preferred equity injection in the business as it positions for a potential sale or IPO.

The LBO financing for CD&R’s acquisition of Shearer’s Foods also sailed through ahead of schedule and tighter than talk, with the sponsor offering a few tighter terms in the docs.

Other deals continued a few themes we’ve seen in the primary market in recent weeks:

Blackstone’s deep-sea cable company SubCom showed dividend deals from solidly performing sponsor-backed companies are finding support, as it upsized, accelerated and tightened the pricing on a $1.4bn TLBfor a dividend recap
Wood Mackenzie added to the growing list of borrowers refinancing private debt facilities in cheaper broadly syndicated markets
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BGIS joined a growing list of companies taking out junior debt to move to an all-senior structure
Auto repair company Crash Champions is following a similar path through the primary market as competitor Caliber Collisions, which raised almost $4bn earlier this month
United Rentals is testing the limits of the repricing wave by attempting to cut its loan to 175bps — recent deals from the likes of Four Seasons have suggested that CLO managers are attempting to hold the line at 200bps

What’s next

In terms of the upcoming pipeline, plenty more repricing and refinancing is expected although data from JP Morgan suggests most of the obvious candidates have already taken advantage: just 11% of the market is now trading above par, the bank said, down from as high as 42% (!) in the first week of January.

Click here for the full loan and bond pipelines. Some highlights include:

KKR-backed crane and rigging company Kito Crosby is looking to refinance a B3/B rated $1bn TLB and $120m revolver.
Wilson and Arc’teryx owner Amer Sports prepping a more than $1bn dual-currency debt refinancing after raising less than expected in its IPO

There is however some new money paper waiting on the sidelines:

Rosen Group is pre-marketing LBO financing via Barclays
Banks and direct lenders are reportedly jockeying over the financing for a potential $13bn buyout of e-signature platform DocuSign

On the distressed front, we looked at trouble brewing in the solar industry. Major players including SunPower, Sunnova Energy and Sunrun are attracting the attention of restructuring advisers as political and economic sentiment sours on the sector. On Thursday, SunPower announced it had obtained an extension on waivers from its lenders including Atlas and BofA.

And DISH Network’s dispute with lenders is still in the early stages, but this week the company dropped its planned debt exchange. See all of our distressed coverage here for more on the company as well as coverage of other US credits including Hearthside, Allen Media, Xplore and more.