SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Ladbrokes has completed its balance sheet refinancing to extend its existing bank facilities, which together with the completion of the £100m retail bond offer, results in an extension of debt maturity on attractive terms as well as diversifying its sources of finance.
The re-financing follows from the launch on 27 May of a £100m 5.125% sterling retail bond with 8.25 year maturity. Strong investor demand saw the offer oversubscribed and closing early.
With the proceeds from the bond issue to be used to pay down existing bank debt, Ladbrokes has successfully extended the maturity to June 2019 of £350m of its previous £540m bank facilities (due to expire in 2016) and cancelled a surplus £135m of the previous facilities. All financial covenants remain unchanged.
As the result of these actions, Ladbrokes total debt financing stands at £730m with an extended maturity profile.
Ian Bull, chief financial officer of Ladbrokes, said: “We are delighted to announce the completion of our re-financing work well ahead of our existing facilities maturing.
“With constructive and strong support from our bank and debt investors, we were able to use both the bank and bond market to enhance the flexibility and length of our debt profile and further strengthen the Ladbrokes’ balance sheets”.
