Albertsons amends debt commitment letter related to Rite Aid purchase

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., March 16 – Albertsons Cos. Inc. amended its previously announced debt commitment letter dated Feb. 18 made in connection to its merger with Rite Aid Corp., according to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the March 12 amendment, the commitment parties agreed to provide the company with $4,667,000,000 of commitments to the $5 billion best efforts asset-based revolving credit facility, $1 billion of incremental commitments under the company’s existing asset-based revolver, a new $1.2 billion asset-based term loan facility and a new $1.2 billion secured bridge loan facility.

Proceeds will be used to refinance some of Rite Aid’s debt and to finance the cash portion of the merger.

The best-efforts ABL facility will only be used if the additional $333 million of commitments are fully allocated to new or existing lenders prior to the date of the merger, in which case the incremental commitments under the existing ABL revolver will cease to apply.

The company entered into the amended and restated commitment letter on March 12 with Bank of America, NA, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., Credit Suisse AG, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Deutsche Bank AG New York Branch, Deutsche Bank AG Cayman Islands Branch, Barclays Bank plc, Royal Bank of Canada, Wells Fargo Bank, NA, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, PNC Bank, NA, PNC Capital Markets LLC, Suntrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bank NA, MUFG, Bank of Montreal, Fifth Third Bank, TD Bank, NA and Capital One, NA.

Additionally, the company amended its asset-based revolving credit agreement dated Dec. 21, 2015 to permit the incurrence of the $1.2 billion ABL term loan facility and the $1.2 billion secured bridge loan facility.

The company entered into the amendment on March 12 with Bank of America, NA as administrative and collateral agent.

Albertsons is a Boise, Idaho-based food and drug retailer. Rite Aid is a Camp Hill, Pa., national drugstore chain.

© 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.