Clear Channel Outdoor unmoved by sale of France business; Action, Ciena changes surface

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, Oct. 18 – Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc.’s term loan held steady in trading on Wednesday following news that the company has reached an agreement to sell its business in France to Equinox Industries.

Meanwhile, in the primary market, Action Holding BV (Peer Holding III BV/Peer USA LLC) increased the size of its term loan B-4, reduced the spread and tightened the original issue discount, and Ciena Corp. upsized its term loan, set the margin at the low end of guidance and revised issue price talk.

Clear Channel steady

Clear Channel Outdoor’s term loan was quoted at 97 bid, 97½ offered on Wednesday, unchanged from Tuesday’s levels, after the company disclosed it is selling its France business to Equinox Industries, a trader said.

As consideration for the transaction, the company would deliver Clear Channel France to Equinox Industries at closing with about €42 million of cash, subject to adjustment for related customary items, tax and other costs, to support ongoing operations of the business, and Equinox Industries would maintain the roughly €30 million state-guaranteed loan held by Clear Channel France.

“This transaction is another positive step forward in our ongoing review of strategic alternatives for our European businesses and would further enable us to advance our strategic priorities in our America and Airports segments,” said Scott Wells, chief executive officer of Clear Channel Outdoor, in a news release.

“Upon completion of this transaction, we will have divested or agreed to divest all of our Europe-South segment operations, a significant step toward our goal of optimizing our portfolio in the best interests of our shareholders,” Wells added.

Closing is expected in the coming weeks, subject to customary conditions.

Clear Channel Outdoor is a New York-based provider of out-of-home display advertising.

Action reworked

Action Holding, a non-food discount retailer in Europe, raised its seven-year term loan B-4 to $1.5 billion from $1 billion, trimmed pricing to SOFR plus 325 basis points from SOFR plus 350 bps and changed the original issue discount to 99.25 from 99, a market source remarked.

As before, the term loan has a 0% floor and 101 soft call protection for six months.

Commitments continued to be due at 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, the source added.

Bank of America, Barclays and Deutsche Bank are the left lead global coordinators and lead arrangers, with Bank of America the primary left lead. BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Rabobank and Goldman Sachs are global coordinators and lead arrangers. ABN Amro, Credit Agricole, Natixis, RBC and SMBC are lead arrangers. Rabobank is the administrative agent.

The term loan will be used with some surplus cash on the balance sheet to fund a financing-related distribution and/or share buyback, to pay transaction fees and expenses, and to put cash on the balance sheet of the group and/or for general corporate purposes.

Ciena tweaked

Ciena lifted its seven-year term loan B (Baa3/BB+) to $1.17 billion from $670 million, firmed pricing at SOFR plus 200 bps, the low end of the SOFR plus 200 bps to 225 bps talk, and modified original issue discount talk to a range of 99.5 to 99.75 from just 99.5, according to a market source.

The term loan still has a 0% floor and 101 soft call protection for six months.

Commitments are due at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, extended from noon ET on Thursday, the source added.

BofA Securities Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., JPMorgan Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Securities LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and MUFG are leading the deal that will be used to refinance the company’s existing term loan B due 2025 and, due to the upsizing, to refinance an existing term loan due 2030.

Ciena is a Hanover, Md.-based networking systems, services and software company.

Fund flows

In other news, actively managed loan fund flows on Tuesday were negative $37 million and loan ETFs were positive $85 million, sources said.

Actively managed high-yield fund flows on Tuesday were positive $15 million and high-yield ETFs were negative $606 million, sources added.

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