Enterprise/EPCO, Allison set talk; Oneida flexes up; LCDX, cash have volatile session

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, July 18 - Enterprise GP Holdings LP, EPCO Holdings Inc. and Allison Transmission came out with price talk on their credit facilities as all of these deals were launched with bank meetings during the Wednesday session.

In other primary news, Oneida Ltd. increased pricing on its term loan while adding soft call protection.

Meanwhile, over in trading, LCDX and the cash market were all over the place on Wednesday, with noticeable softening in the early part of the session and some rebounding in the afternoon.

Enterprise GP and EPCO held a joint bank meeting on Wednesday, with a 9:30 a.m. ET start, to kick off syndication on their $2.9 billion in new senior secured credit facilities (Ba2/BB), and in connection with the launch, price talk emerged, according to a market source.

Enterprise GP's $200 million five-year revolver was presented with talk of Libor plus 175 basis points and its $1 billion seven-year term loan B was presented with talk of Libor plus 200 bps, the source said.

EPCO's $300 million five-year revolver and $500 million five-year term loan A were both presented with talk of Libor plus 175 bps and its $900 million seven-year term loan B was presented with talk of Libor plus 200 bps, the source added.

Citigroup and Lehman Brothers are the joint lead arrangers on the deals, with Lehman the left lead on the EPCO term loan B and Citi the left lead on everything else.

Proceeds from Enterprise GP's $1.7 billion credit facility and from EPCO's $1.2 billion credit facility will be used to refinance interim credit facilities at the two Houston-based midstream energy companies.

Allison Transmission price talk

Allison Transmission also held a bank meeting on Wednesday morning to launch its proposed $3.5 billion credit facility (B1/BB-), at which time it too announced pricing guidance, according to market sources.

Both the $3.1 billion term loan B and the $400 million revolver were launched with talk of Libor plus 250 bps, sources said.

The term loan B is being offered to lenders with an original issue discount of 991/2, sources added.

Citigroup, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch are the lead banks on the deal.

Proceeds will be used to help fund the acquisition of Allison Transmission by the Carlyle Group and Onex Corp. from General Motors Corp. for $5.575 billion.

Other financing will come from approximately $1.5 billion in equity.

Allison Transmission is a Speedway, Ind., designer and manufacturer of automatic transmissions for on-highway trucks and buses, off-highway equipment and military vehicles.

Oneida ups pricing, adds call

Oneida bumped pricing higher on its $120 million seven-year first-lien term loan (B3/B+) and added 101 soft call protection for one year to the tranche, according to a market source.

Pricing on the term loan is now set at Libor plus 450 bps, up from original talk at launch of Libor plus 350 bps, the source said.

Credit Suisse is the lead arranger on the deal, which will be used to refinance existing debt.

Oneida is an Oneida, N.Y, maker of flatware, dinnerware, crystal and metal serving pieces.

LCDX, cash bounce around

LCDX and the cash market seesawed on Wednesday, coming off in the early hours and then rebounding a bit before the close, according to sources.

The index ended the session at 96.00 bid, 96.20 offered, slightly wider and lower on the bid side when compared to Tuesday's levels of 96.05 bid, 96.20 offered, sources said.

"It was down in the 95's earlier in the day and then it found a little bid of a bid late in the day. I think 95.40 was the lowest I saw the bid get to," one fund manager remarked.

"It's more of the same," the fund manager said regarding the performance of LCDX and cash. "Stocks traded off."

"It ended fairly unchanged because it rallied back with equities. Equities ended down, but not as much as they were," a trader added. "Things were back and forth."

As for the cash market, that was down an eighth of a point to even a half a point on certain names, the trader continued.

Nasdaq was down 12.80 points, or 0.47%, Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 53.33 points, or 0.38%, S&P 500 was down 3.20 points, or 0.21%, and NYSE was down 22.08 points, or 0.22%.

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