Nielsen Holdings updates euro term loan size to €300 million term loan

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, Nov. 23 – Nielsen Holdings plc (Neptune Bidco US Inc.) upsized its euro term loan B due April 2029 to €300 million from a minimum size of €250 million, according to a market source.

Pricing on the euro term loan B was unchanged at Euribor plus 500 basis points with a 0% floor and an original issue discount of 89.

As previously reported, the company is also getting a $2.1 billion term loan B due April 2029 priced at SOFR+10 bps CSA plus 500 bps with a 0.5% floor and issued at a discount of 89.

Both term loans have 101 soft call protection for one year.

The U.S. term loan B allocated on Tuesday.

When launched, the term loan B was described as $1.75 billion equivalent U.S. and euro term loan B debt with sizes to be determined. However, the debt was recently revised to $1.5 billion U.S. and minimum €250 million euro, prior to the upsizing of both tranches – the U.S. piece on Tuesday and the euro piece on Wednesday.

Also, during syndication, the original issue discount on both term loans finalized at the wide end of the 89 to 90 talk. In addition, changes were made to documentation, including revising the 50 bps MFN sunset to two years from one year, reducing the free and clear incremental basket, removing step-downs from the asset sale sweep and modifying excess cash flow sweep step-downs.

Nielsen’s lead banks

BofA Securities Inc., Barclays, Credit Suisse, Mizuho, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., HSBC Securities, KKR Capital Markets LLC, Nomura Securities International Inc., BMO Capital Markets Corp., Goldman Sachs, Jefferies LLC, Macquarie Capital, Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc., RBC Capital Markets LLC, Truist Securities Inc., BNP Paribas Securities Corp., CIBC, Fifth Third Bank and MUFG are the bookrunners on Nielsen’s term loans.

Proceeds will be used to help fund the recently completed buyout of the company by a private equity consortium led by Evergreen Coast Capital Corp. and Brookfield Business Partners LP for $28 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at about $16 billion, including the assumption of debt.

Upon closing on the buyout, the company revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that, to help fund the transaction, it entered into senior secured credit facilities comprised of a $650 million revolver, a $2.5 billion term loan A, a $3.35 billion term loan B and a €510 million term loan B.

The institutional debt funded at closing had not been syndicated.

The company also obtained a $2.15 billion secured second-lien term loan with Ares Capital Corp. as administrative agent.

Nielsen is a New York-based provider of audience measurement, data and analytics.

Fund flows

In other news, actively managed loan fund flows on Tuesday were negative $75 million and loan ETFs were positive $15 million, according to market sources.

Actively managed high-yield fund flows on Tuesday were negative $115 million and high-yield ETFs were negative $94 million, sources added.

Loan indices mixed

IHS Markit’s iBoxx loan indices were mixed on Tuesday, with the Leveraged Loan indexes (MiLLi) closing out the day up 0.01% and the Liquid Leveraged Loan indices (LLLi) closing out the day down 0.01%.

Month to date, the MiLLi is up 1.10% and year to date its down 1.69%. The LLLi is up 0.92% month to date and down 2.55% year to date.

Average secondary market bids in the U.S. on Tuesday were 92.40, down 0.01% from the previous day and down 4.59% year to date.

According to the IHS Markit data, some of the top advancers on Tuesday were Gopher Resource’s March 2018 covenant-lite term loan B at 64.08, up from 60.60, West Corp.’s October 2017 covenant-lite term loan at 91.38, up from 87.72, and Rackspace Hosting’s February 2021 covenant-lite term loan B at 66.83, up from 64.25.

Some top decliners on Tuesday were Cineworld’s February 2018 U.S. covenant-lite term loan at 21.99, down from 24.34, National CineMedia’s June 2018 covenant-lite term loan at 35.04, down from 36.28, and U.S. Renal Care’s June 2019 term loan B at 58.65, down from 60.38.

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