Gristede's still hopes to complete sale of notes despite market "turmoil"

By Paul A. Harris

St. Louis, Mo., July 18 - Gristede's Foods, Inc. announced it is continuing to pursue the acquisition of Kings SuperMarkets from Marks & Spencer, PLC, although Gristede's exclusivity period for the purchase has expired.

In a press release dated July 17 Gristede's added that it is continuing its attempt to sell $175 million of 10-year senior notes (B2/B+) that the company has been marketing through Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Jefferies & Co.

The note sale, the release stated, has "not yet been completed because of the current turmoil in the financial markets.

"The company believes that under normal financial market conditions the transaction would have been completed during the exclusivity period," the release added.

Gristede's also stated that while it hopes to complete the bond deal it is concurrently exploring alternative means of financing the Kings acquisition, although it no longer has any assurance from Marks & Spencer that it will not sell Kings in a different transactions.

When asked by Thursday by Prospect News if price talk on the new Gristede's 10-year senior notes was still 11%-11¼%, as had been heard on June 28, company spokesman Kishore Lall declined to comment or to furnish any other information about the high yield deal.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.