Bridgepoint’s Fat Face completes £210m refinancing

Citigroup and Goldman Sachs acted as bookrunners and mandated lead arrangers for the refinancing transaction. Ashurst advised the two firms.

According to Reuters, the company may pay a dividend of around £65m to its shareholders as part of the refinancing.

The senior secured loan reportedly comprises a £180m six-year term loan B and a £30m five-year revolving credit facility, the latter of which Lloyds has provided with an anchor commitment.

Fat Face was set to float on the LSE in May of this year, with plans to raise £110m. Later that same month, the company scrapped its flotation plans citing "current equity market conditions" as the main factor in its cancellation.

The flotation would have valued Fat Face at around £440m. The company had originally planned on paying off senior debt with the IPO proceeds, while Bridgepoint was also expecting to partially divest its stake.

Previous funding
Bridgepoint acquired Fat Face in a £360m secondary buyout from Advent International in March 2007, according to unquote" data. The GP took a majority stake, with management holding the balance. Debt was provided for the acquisition by BNP Paribas.

Advent had acquired a 54% stake in the business from Isis Equity Partners in April 2005 in a deal worth £110m, with senior and mezzanine debt provided by Royal Bank of Scotland. Isis had invested around £5m in the business in February 2000, according to unquote" data.

Company
Founded in 1988 and headquartered in London, Fat Face is a clothing brand that operates 200 stores across Ireland and the UK.

Fat Face generated £178.6m in revenues in 2013, as well as an EBITDA of £31.2m with a margin of 17.5%. The company paid off £17.9m in external debt last year; its external debt sat at £167.7m as of 1 June 2013.

At the time of its last financial report, Fat Face's directors had no plans for a dividend payment.

People
Anthony Thompson is the CEO of Fat Face.

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• Topics
• Restructuring
• UK / Ireland
• Consumer
• United Kingdom
• Bridgepoint
• Refinancing