SS&C bond deal not imminent despite progress on other financing

By Paul Deckelman

New York, June 19 – SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc. has priced an equity offering that could raise more than $700 million for the company and is also getting set to launch a proposed $2.63 billion bank debt deal this upcoming week, but the third leg of its financing triad, a $500 million senior unsecured note offering, will apparently just have to wait.

A high-yield primary market source said Friday that even though the other phases of the company’s financing effort for its pending acquisition of Advent Software Inc. are now coming along, timing on the planned bond deal is still “a couple of weeks out.”

SS&C, a Windsor, Conn.-based provider of financial services software and software-enabled services, disclosed its financing plans in February, when it announced that it would acquire San Francisco-based Advent, a provider of software and services for the investment management industry, for some $2.7 billion in cash, equating to $44.25 per share plus the assumption of Advent’s debt. It plans to also refinance its own existing debt.

The financing plans include the issuance of $500 million of notes, the exact tenor of which has yet to be determined, backed by a commitment for a senior unsecured bridge loan. Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc. is to be the left lead bookrunner on the bond deal, with Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. also serving as a bookrunner.

Other funding for the Advent deal would come from cash on hand, proceeds raised through the equity transaction and from the $2.63 billion senior secured credit facility.

According to bank debt market sources, that facility is scheduled to launch at a bank meeting in New York on Tuesday and will consist of a $150 million five-year revolving credit line, a $40 million five-year term loan A-1 to be made available to SS&C European Holdings SaRL, a $160 million five-year term loan A-2 to be made available to SS&C Technologies Holdings Europe SaRL, a $1.82 billion seven-year covenant-light term loan B-1 to be made available to SS&C Technologies Inc. and a $460 million seven-year covenant-light term loan B-2 to be made available to SS&C Technologies Holdings Europe SaRL.

Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley Senior Funding and Barclays Capital Inc. are the bookrunners on the bank debt. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Jefferies Finance LLC are the co-managers.

SS&C separately announced on Friday that it had priced its public offering of 10.5 million shares of its common stock at $61.50 per share for potential gross proceeds of nearly $646 million. The company granted its underwriters a 30-day greenshoe option to purchase up to an additional 1,575,000 shares at that price, potentially raising another nearly $97 million. The stock offering is scheduled to close on Wednesday.

The company said that in addition to the Advent purchase, any remaining proceeds from the equity and debt financings would be used for general corporate purposes.

Sara Rosenberg contributed to this report.

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