Entain sets talk on amend and extend transaction; Altice, BJ’s Wholesale ready deals

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, Nov. 28 – In the loan market on Monday, Entain plc came to market with a U.S. add-on term loan B and a euro term loan B that will repay and extend portions of its existing euro term loan B.

Also, Altice International joined this week’s primary calendar with an amendment and extension transaction for U.S. and euro term loans, and BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. emerged with plans for an amended and extended first-lien term loan.

Entain holds call

Entain held a lender call at 11 a.m. ET on Monday, launching a fungible $250 million add-on term loan B (Ba1) due October 2029 at talk of SOFR+10 basis points CSA plus 350 bps with a 0.5% floor and an original issue discount of 98, market sources remarked. Call protection on the add-on is the same as the call protection on the existing U.S. term loan B.

The company also launched a €500 million term loan B (Ba1) due June 2028 at talk of Euribor plus 375 bps with a 0% floor, a discount of 97 and 101 soft call protection for one year.

Commitments for the U.S. term loan are due at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday and commitments for the euro term loan are due at 7 a.m. ET on Friday, sources added.

Entain lead banks

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. is the left lead and sole physical bookrunner on Entain’s U.S. term loan and Barclays is a physical bookrunner. Barclays and Deutsche are the joint global coordinators and physical bookrunners on the euro term loan. Mandated lead arrangers include Lloyds, Mediobanca, Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc., Natwest and Santander. Wilmington Trust is the administrative agent.

The U.S. term loan will be used to partially repay a euro term loan due March 2024 and the proceeds from the euro term loan will be used to extend by 4.25 years some of the existing euro term loan debt due March 2024.

Entain is a Douglas, Isle of Man-based sports-betting, gaming and interactive entertainment group.

Altice on deck

Altice set a lender call for 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday to launch a U.S. term loan B due October 2027 and a euro term loan B due October 2027, according to a market source.

Proceeds will be used to amend and extend an existing €300 million term loan B due 2026 priced at Euribor plus 275 bps, and an existing $910 million term loan B due 2025 and an existing $900 million term loan B due 2026, both priced at Libor plus 275 bps.

Talk on the extended U.S. and euro term loans is SOFR/Euribor plus 500 bps with a 0% floor, an original issue discount of 98 and 101 soft call protection for one year, the source said. The U.S. loan has no CSA.

Altice deadlines

Commitments are due at noon ET on Friday for Altice’s U.S. term loan and at 8 a.m. ET on Friday for the euro term loan, the source added. Allocations for both loans are expected on Dec. 5.

JPMorgan Chase Bank and BNP Paribas Securities Corp. are leading the deal, with JPMorgan left on the U.S. loan and BNP left on the euro loan. Passive bookrunners on both loans include Barclays, Credit Agricole, Goldman Sachs, ING, Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc. and RBC Capital Markets. Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. is another passive bookrunner on the euro piece. JPMorgan is the agent on both loans.

Altice is a cable, telecommunications and entertainment company.

BJ’s joins calendar

BJ’s Wholesale Club scheduled a lender call for 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday to launch an up to $452 million covenant-lite first-lien term loan due February 2027 talked at SOFR plus 275 bps with a 0% floor, an original issue discount of 99.625 for new money, an extension fee of 37.5 bps for existing lenders and 101 soft call protection for six months, a market source remarked.

Commitments are due at noon ET on Dec. 8, the source added.

Nomura Securities, BofA Securities Inc. and Wells Fargo Securities LLC are leading the deal.

The loan will be used to amend and extend the maturity of up to $452 million of the company’s existing first-lien term loan by three years from February 2024. Current pricing on the existing first-lien term loan is Libor plus 200 bps with a 0% floor.

With this transaction, the company will repay up to $150 million of the existing first-lien term loan with funds from an ABL revolver draw. As of Oct. 29, there was $601.9 million outstanding on the first-lien term loan.

BJ’s is a Westborough, Mass.-based warehouse club operator.

Fund flows

In other news, actively managed loan fund flows on Friday were negative $45 million and loan ETFs were $0, market sources said.

Loan funds reported weekly outflows of $514 million, including negative $37 million ETFs. This was a fourteenth consecutive withdrawal for loans and twenty third in the past 24 weeks.

For context, the past 14 weeks’ outflows total $12.6 billion or 14.7% of weekly AUM, sources continued.

Net inflows for loan funds since the beginning of 2021 are down to $40 billion, and dedicated loan fund AUM is down to $108 billion from as much as $142 billion in May.

Outflows for loan funds year to date total $6.1 billion, including negative $2.7 billion ETFs, sources added.

Loan indices rise

IHS Markit’s iBoxx loan indices were stronger on Friday, with the Leveraged Loan indexes (MiLLi) closing out the day up 0.03% and the Liquid Leveraged Loan indices (LLLi) closing out the day up 0.02%.

Month to date, the MiLLi is up 1.13% and year to date its down 1.66%. The LLLi is up 0.94% month to date and down 2.53% year to date.

Average secondary market bids in the U.S. on Friday were 92.37, down 0.02% from the previous day and down 4.63% year to date.

According to the IHS Markit data, some of the top advancers on Friday were Heritage Power’s July 2019 term loan at 32.78, up from 32.23, American Auto Auction/XLerate’s December 2021 second-lien covenant-lite term loan at 87.67, up from 86.33, and Cineworld’s February 2018 U.S. covenant-lite term loan at 21.72, up from 21.40.

Some top decliners on Friday were Employbridge’s July 2021 covenant-lite term loan B at 80.63, down from 81.71, Solera’s June 2021 U.S. covenant-lite term loan at 91.08, down from 92.13, and Revlon’s November 2020 additional covenant-lite term loan B2 at 46.39, down from 46.84.

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