Bids on three BWICs come due; Alpha Media takes second crack at first-lien loan syndication

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, Feb. 11 – There were three Bids Wanted In Competition (BWIC) due during Thursday’s leveraged loan market hours, bringing the total number of BWICs to hit the market this week to four and the total dollar amount to about $518 million.

Switching over to the primary market, Alpha Media is taking a second try at syndicating and closing on its first-lien term loan that came to market last year but fell apart prior to completion.

BWICs abound

Investor bids on three BWICs were due on Thursday morning, according to sources who suggested that large outflows from funds have something to do with that number.

One source said that year-to-date, there have been about $1.3 billion in BWICs, versus just of $900 million in the comparable period last year.

Regarding Thursday’s activity, the roughly $184 million BWIC due at 11 a.m. ET included about 30 issuers, with some of the debt in the portfolio being Affinia Group Inc.’s term loan B-1, DynCorp International Inc.’s term loan, Energy Future Intermediate Holding Co. LLC’s term loan, Chrysler Group LLC’s term loan B, Huntsman International LLC’s extended term loan B, KAR Auction Services Inc.’s term loan B-1, Nielsen Finance LLC’s term loan B-1, PTC Alliance Holding Corp.’s term loan B-1 and US Airways Inc.’s term loan B-2.

The roughly $176 million BWIC due at 11 a.m. ET had about 49 issuers. Some of the debt in the portfolio included Allied Security Holdings LLC’s second-lien term loan, Catalent Pharma Solutions’ dollar term loan, Energy Transfer Equity LP’s first-lien term loan, Granite Acquisition Inc.’s first- and second-lien term loan B’s and first-lien term loan C, Carestream Health’s second-lien term loan, Winebow Inc.’s second-lien term loan and Surgery Centers Holdings Inc.’s first-lien term loan.

And, the roughly $15 million BWIC due at 10 a.m. ET included about 25 issuers, with some of the debt in the portfolio being American Airlines’ term loan B, Dell’s term loan B-2, Media General’s term loan B and Valeant Pharmaceuticals first-lien term loan B.

Alpha reattempts loan

Alpha Media is currently working on syndicating its $265 million six-year first-lien term loan, that is now talked at Libor plus 600 basis points with a 1% Libor floor, an original issue discount of 95 and 101 soft call protection for one year, according to a market source.

Proceeds will be used to fund the acquisition of radio stations from Digity LLC.

The first-lien term loan was first launched in October of last year at talk of Libor plus 475 bps to 500 bps with a 1% Libor floor, an original issue discount of 99 and 101 soft call protection for six months, but syndication was unable to be completed and the purchase agreement for the radio stations expired, the source said.

The acquisition is back on, so syndication of the loan is again being attempted.

Amortization on the essentially relaunched first-lien term loan is 5% per annum, versus 2.5% per annum during last year’s syndication try.

Alpha lead banks

Citizens Bank and Antares Capital are the lead arrangers on Alpha Media’s first-lien term loan, which is a change from the October transaction in which Citizens was sole lead.

Commitments for the first-lien term loan are due on Feb. 19, and a couple of anchor orders have already come in on the deal, the source added.

As was the case last year, the company’s $350 million credit facility also includes a $20 million revolver and a $65 million second-lien term loan that has been privately placed.

Alpha Media is a Portland, Ore.-based radio broadcast media company.

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