Global Business Travel plans $1 billion loan with purchase by SPAC

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, Dec. 3 – Global Business Travel Group Inc. has received a commitment for a $1 billion term loan in connection with its acquisition by Apollo Strategic Growth Capital from American Express, according to a news release.

Proceeds will be used to repay about $600 million of certain existing term loans and to provide an incremental $400 million of financing for general corporate purposes, including to backstop potential redemptions.

Once acquired by Apollo Strategic Growth Capital, a special purpose acquisition company, Global Business Travel will be a public company.

The transaction implies a pro forma market capitalization of about $5.3 billion and a pro forma enterprise valuation of around $5 billion for Global Business Travel.

Current Global Business Travel common equity holders are expected to roll their existing equity holdings into the company.

The transaction is expected to provide up to about $1.2 billion in gross proceeds, comprised of Apollo Strategic’s roughly $817 million of cash held in trust and an upsized $335 million fully committed common stock PIPE financing.

Closing is expected in the first half of 2022 subject to customary conditions, including approval of the business combination by Apollo Strategic’s shareholders and regulatory approvals.

Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC are acting as financial advisers to Global Business Travel.

Evercore is acting as financial and capital markets adviser to Apollo Strategic, and Houlihan Lokey also served as a financial adviser to Apollo Strategic. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Apollo Global Securities, Credit Suisse and Evercore acted as placement agents for the PIPE investment.

Global Business Travel is a B2B travel platform.

© 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.