Tower Automotive, American Tower, Getty Petroleum break for trading

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, May 18 - A bunch of new paper flooded into the secondary bank loan market on Tuesday as three deals - Tower Automotive Inc.'s $565 million credit facility, American Tower Corp.'s $1.1 billion senior secured credit facility (B1/B) and Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc.'s $360 million credit facility (B1) - allocated.

Tower Automotive's $375 million five-year first lien term loan B (B1/B+) was quoted at par ¼ bid, par 3/8 offered toward the end of the day, according to a trader. When the deal first broke it was seen at par 3/8 plus bid, par ½ plus offered. It fell to as low as par 1/8 bid, par 3/8 offered during trading on market technicals and then started to rebound a bit by late day, the trader said.

"The belief is it's going to recover. It just needs to clear out some of the sellers," the trader explained.

The $140 million 51/2-year second lien synthetic letter-of-credit facility (B2/B-) was quoted at 101¼ bid, 101 3/8 offered, according to a second trader, with the paper remaining at those levels basically throughout the day.

Both tranches were seen trading pretty actively during market hours, the second trader added.

The first lien term loan is priced with an interest rate of Libor plus 425 basis points. The second lien synthetic letter-of-credit facility is priced with an interest rate of Libor plus 700 basis points, reverse flexed from original price talk of Libor plus 750 basis points during syndication.

The books on Tower's credit facility closed last Thursday with $1.7 billion of demand, clearly bringing this deal into the blowout category.

Tower Automotive's credit facility also contains a $50 million five-year revolver (B1/B+) with an interest rate of Libor plus 425 basis points.

Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan are the lead banks on the deal, with Morgan Stanley listed on the left.

Leverage through the first lien is 1.8x, and leverage through the first and second lien is 2.3x.

Proceeds, combined with proceeds from a $110 million principal amount of convertible senior debentures offering, will be used to refinance the existing credit facility eliminating near-term amortization pressure and refinance the 5% convertible subordinated notes due Aug. 1.

The convertibles priced after market close Monday to yield 5.75% with final terms announced Tuesday morning.

Tower Automotive is a Novi, Mich., designer and producer of structural components and assemblies used by automotive original equipment manufacturers.

American Tower breaks

American Tower's $400 million term loan B was quoted at par 5/8 bid, par 7/8 offered, while its $300 million term loan A was quoted at par ¼ bid, par ½ offered, according to a trader.

The term loan B is priced with an interest rate of Libor plus 225 basis points and the term loan A is priced with an interest rate of Libor plus 200 basis points.

The credit facility also contains an unfunded $400 million revolver with an interest rate of Libor plus 200 basis points.

Toronto Dominion and JPMorgan are joint lead arrangers on the deal, with TD listed on the left as administrative agent and JPMorgan acting as syndication agent. General Electric Capital Corp., Citigroup and Credit Suisse First Boston are co-documentation agents.

Security is a pledge of substantially all the company's assets.

Proceeds from the new facility would be used to repay the company's existing senior secured credit facility, which currently has outstanding borrowings of about $666 million, and for general corporate purposes, including refinancing other existing debt.

Pricing on the pro rata tranches and the institutional tranche are unchanged from pricing on the company's existing bank debt.

American Tower is a Boston wireless and broadcast communications infrastructure company.

Getty breaks

Getty Petroleum hit the secondary on Tuesday with the $270 million six-year term loan quoted at par ½ bid, par ¾ offered on the break, according to a fund manager.

The term loan is priced with an interest rate of Libor plus 325 basis points. During syndication a stepdown in pricing was added to Libor plus 300 basis points if leverage gets below 3x. However, the interest rate will stay at Libor plus 325 basis points for the first six months.

It appears as if investor appetite was pretty strong for the institutional paper as people were unable to get as much paper as they sought.

"Our allocation was about 40% of our order size," the fund manager said.

Getty's upsized $360 million credit facility (B1) also contains a $90 million four-year revolver that was increased from $75 million during syndication. The tranche is priced with an interest rate of Libor plus 250 basis points.

Lehman Brothers is the sole lead arranger and administrative agent on the deal.

Security for the term loan is a first lien on fixed assets and a second lien on accounts receivables and inventory. Security for the revolver is second lien on fixed assets and a first lien on accounts receivables and inventory.

Proceeds will be used to purchase Mobil branded gasoline retail stations and contracts to supply gasoline to Mobil branded stations located in New Jersey and Pennsylvania from ConocoPhillips.

Getty Petroleum is an East Meadow, N.Y., distributor of motor and heating fuels.

Pegasus lower

Pegasus Media & Communications Inc.'s term loan D and Pegasus Satellite Communications Inc.'s bank debt both headed lower by about a point on Tuesday following the company's 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which invoked some liquidity fears amongst investors.

The term loan D was quoted at par bid, 101½ offered by the end of the day but traded around in the 101 bid, 102 offered context during market hours, a trader said. The Satellite paper was quoted at around the 98 level.

"They released their 10-Q. The detailed discussion of the liquidity picture scared people," the trader explained.

In the filing, the Bala Cynwyd, Pa., diversified media and communications company revealed that is was figuring out how to pay a $51.5 million breach-of-contract settlement to DirecTV Inc. with the main issues being how much pre-judgment interest it will have to pay and how much the bond will be if the company decides to appeal the decision.

If the company fails to pay, it could be in default under its credit facilities and its bonds. And, without waivers, Pegasus Satellite Television, Pegasus Media and/or Pegasus Satellite may have to file for protection under Chapter 11, the filing said.

NEP size shifts

NEP Broadcasting LLC shifted some funds from its term loan B to its second lien term loan, according to a syndicate document.

The 61/2-year term loan B is now sized at $145 million compared to initial sizing of $140 million, and the seven-year second lien term loan is now sized at $45 million compared to initial sizing of $40 million.

The $210 million credit facility also contains a $20 million five-year revolver.

Wachovia is the lead bank on the deal that will be used to fund Apax Partners and Spectrum Equity Investors' acquisition of the company.

NEP is a Pittsburgh provider of outsourced media services.

Freedom closes

Freedom Communications Inc. announced Tuesday that its recapitalization in association with two private equity firms, The Blackstone Group and Providence Equity Partners, originally announced on Oct. 14, 2003, was completed after various regulatory, governance and financing conditions were met.

In connection with the recapitalization, the company closed on a $1.1 billion senior credit facility (Ba3/BB) consisting of a $650 million eight-year term loan B, a $200 million six-year revolver and a $250 million six-year term loan A, with all tranches priced with an interest rate of Libor plus 200 basis points.

Originally, the deal was structured as a $750 million term loan B, $250 million term loan A and a $100 million revolver, but some size shifting took place during syndication.

JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Wachovia, Deutsche Bank and UBS were the lead banks on this deal.

Freedom Communications is an Irvine, Calif., diversified media company.

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