Blackstone to hand Jack Wolfskin to lenders in debt-for-equity swap

A coordinating committee of HIG Capital, CQS and Sankaty, advised by Houlihan Lokey and Kirkland & Ellis, is said to have agreed to write off €80m of debt, reducing outstanding liabilities to €210m, and inject an extra €25m in exchange for ownership of the company.

Second-lien lenders would have their €45m investment wiped out but outstanding expenses are still being negotiated. According to data from unquote" sister data product CLO-i, Blackstone credit arm GSO is among the second lien holders through its Harbourmaster 9 CLO. Some bids were considered for the company's acquisition earlier in the year but none would have cleared the €330m debt, according to the source.

Jack Wolfskin was first acquired by private equity in 2002 when Bain Capital bought the company from Johnson Outdoors for an enterprise value of €64m, including €36m of debt arranged by LBBW and BHF. Bain then sold its stake to Quadriga Capital in 2005 in a deal worth €105m. By 2011, the company was owned by Quadriga and Equistone, which sold to Blackstone in a €700m transaction with €500m of debt arranged by BAML, Morgan Stanley, UBS and IKB.

In 2015, Blackstone agreed to inject an extra €75m into the company to pay down debt in exchange for an extension on its revolving credit facility and a rest of its net leverage test for the life of the deal, according to unquote" sister publication Debtwire.
However, by early 2017 it was clear that a restructuring was the most likely outcome, although M&A advisers were still appointed to explore alternative options.

Negotiations are still ongoing.

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• Topics
• Restructuring
• DACH
• Consumer
• Blackstone Group
• HIG Capital