LBO France's Labeyrie in €275m refinancing

The notes will mature in 2021 and came with a 5.625% coupon. Labeyrie has now moved to an all-bond debt structure.

According to LBO France, the placement was more than 15x oversubscribed, which, when combined with the low coupon, highlights the current appetite for European assets on the high-yield market.

The proceeds will be used to repay in full Labeyrie's existing facilities, which included €160.6m of term A and B loans, €35.2m of senior mezzanine bonds and €28.5m of junior PIK mezzanine bonds. LBO France will also partially realise its investment in the business, since part of the proceeds will go towards repaying subordinated shareholder convertible bonds (€59.5m overall, leaving roughly €21m outstanding). Finally, senior mezzanine warrants amounting to €1.1m will also be redeemed.

Labeyrie will also enter into an €80m three-year factoring facility agreement and a €35m 6.5-year revolving credit facility.

LBO France had already looked at the possibility of a high-yield financing when it originally invested in the business in late 2011, but decided against it in light of market conditions at the time, partner Thomas Boulman told unquote". The new structure will prove to be less costly (the overall rate on the previous facilities stood at more than 8%) and simpler, awarding Labeyrie with some leeway to pursue its acquisitive growth strategy, he added.

CM-CIC Securites acted as co-manager while BNP Paribas and Natixis were joint bookrunners on the placement.

Previous funding
LBO France secured a 33% stake in Labeyrie via its White Knight VIII fund at the beginning of 2012. The buyout reportedly valued the business at around €600m. The holding was previously named Alfesca and was owned by Icelandic investor Kjalar Invest, Icelandic bank Kaupthing and French food cooperative Lur Berri. The latter now holds a majority stake in the business.

EBITDA has since increased to €71m, against €55m at the time of the acquisition. Labeyrie has already executed a bolt-on since the 2012 transaction and was also in the running for the acquisition of private equity-backed Européenne des Desserts last year – the business eventually went to Equistone in a secondary buyout understood to have been valued at more than €100m.

Company
Labeyrie specialises in high-end food items including foie gras, smoked salmon, blinis, spreads and desserts. Based in Came, it operates 14 production sites in France and the UK and posted a €753m turnover in 2012.

People
Partner Thomas Boulman worked on the deal for LBO France.

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• Topics
• France
• Restructuring
• Consumer
• Exits
• France
• LBO France
• Refinancing
• high yield