French retailer Casino Group has announced the launch of a new senior unsecured bond worth €300 million maturing January 2026 as part of its transaction to reinforce its financial structure.
The company has also launched a tender offer on senior unsecured bonds maturing between 2021 and 2025 for a maximum of €1.2 billion.
The new bonds include the same restrictions on dividends as those of the November 2019 financing, the company added.
As a result, Casino Group will restrict dividend payments unless its covenant ratio is below 3.5x post payment of any dividend.
Tender Offer
The tender offer will target the group’s senior unsecured bonds maturing 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
The retail giant will finance it with €735 million from the proceeds of the disposal of Leader Price and the cash available in the segregated account dedicated to debt repayment.
It will also tap the Term Loan B announced on 9 December worth €200 million.
During the tender offer, Casino Group will accept any and all bonds maturing in 2021 and 2023 that are tendered, and all or part of those maturing in 2022, 2024 and 2025 that are tendered.
The cash raised and potentially not used during the tender offer will be credited to the segregated account dedicated to repayment of debt in the future, Casino said in its statement.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
