US LevFin Wrap — Carlyle seeks Hamilton dividend…again, Citrix wrings out savings with loan repricing

Sasha Padbidri

17 May 2024•3 min read

We’ve been on the conference grind lately, most recently in Rancho Palos Verdes, California for the Goldman Sachs Leveraged Finance Conference — check out our coverage of the event here.

Meanwhile back in New York, repricings and refinancings continued to dominate the primary deal pipeline as M&A supply remains low.

“Sponsors are being opportunistic and either repricing or pushing out their companies’ maturities,” said a buysider. “The market is so strong right now that most deals will get done.”

Of the deals that launched this week, Hamilton Projects stood out — lenders are getting more comfortable with the credit as trends like artificial intelligence fuel demand for electricity. That means sponsor Carlyle might be able to pay itself a dividend without Hamilton coughing up a chunky consent fee (like it did last April) to get the deal done.

The AI fever is hitting many corners of credit markets. According to a report published today, AI cloud computing startup CoreWeave raised $7.5bn from investors including Carlyle and Blackstone, making it one of the largest-ever private debt financings.

In a decidedly analog business, as we previously reported, Staples is offering up a $1.8bn TLB due 2029 via Morgan Stanley to refinance debt coming due this year and 2026. The deal comes as it rides a wave of strong recent earnings, driven in part by back-to-office trends.

Turning to a company that benefited from people spending more time at home, 9fin reported that Peloton is working with JP Morgan to refinance its existing debt with a potential loan incorporating some bond-like call structures.

But one issuer is holding off on a possible refinancing for now — sources said that E.W. Scripps is watching a refinancing transaction from peer Gray Television before making its next move. That deal could help Scripps gauge leveraged finance investors’ appetite for broadcast media companies, which have struggled to compete with streaming services.

Jumbo repricings

Some familiar names have returned to the primary market to squeeze out more savings. Citrix repriced a TLB due 2029 after printing a $1.8bn SSN due 2032 to take out preferred equity last week. At $6.495bn, the repriced loan is the largest US leveraged loan to be issued this year. We may see the company add to the M&A pipeline too — Citrix is exploring the sale of content creation platform ShareFile, which could be valued at around $1.5bn.

McAfee is also taking advantage of the current repricing wave (and a recent ratings upgrade) to slash the margin on its existing $4.828bn TLB due 2029 by 50bps-75bps. Commitments for that deal are due 22 May at 5pm ET.

Secondary moves

In secondary moves this week, Altice France’s TLB due 2028 dropped three points since the start of the week after the company revealed designations of several unrestricted subsidiaries and shifted its HoldCo revolver to the OpCo level.

Blackstone-backed home interior design business Interior Logic’s debt traded down several points after it reported disappointing Q1 2024 earnings thanks in part to weak housing starts. Earlier this month, its SUNs due 2029 dropped to the low 70s after the company announced a 40% decline in adjusted EBITDA for Q4 2023.

If you have a bit of time this weekend, you might want to check out Blue Orca’s short report on Insulet, which also name-dropped Medtronic. We unpacked how this could be relevant for leveraged finance participants in this article.