LBO France to start receiving offers for Consolis in October

LBO France mandated Lazard to manage the disposal process, with DC Advisory advising the company on setting up the acquisition and associated refinancing debt package. The process was initiated in March, initially focusing on drafting vendor due diligence reports, which LBO France expects to be completed by late July.

The GP stated that the information memorandum should be finalised over the summer with a view to receiving indicative offers by early October.

LBO France bought Consolis from IK Investment Partners in 2006 for around €940m, or approximately 7.5x EBITDA. KBC underwrote the debt package at the time, which saw the deal leveraged at approximately 5.5x EBITDA.

Consolis has gone through troubled times since then, seeing its EBITDA more than halve following the financial crisis of 2008 and reportedly breaching several banking covenants.

Consolis underwent a first refinancing in 2011. LBO France was then understood to have injected a further €35m of equity into the firm while lenders loosened debt covenants and extended repayments.

In 2013, Bayside Capital and LBO France injected new debt and an equity into Consolis. Bayside – HIG Capital's credit arm – underwrote new super-senior credit facilities totaling €45m, while LBO France provided another €45m in fresh equity.

The refinancing also included the deferral of senior debt maturities and the conversion into equity-like instruments of approximately half of Consolis's senior debt and all of its junior debt. The company's net debt was reduced from €760m to around €350m.

Consolis manufactures concrete elements used in the construction industry. It posted a €1.36bn turnover and €86m EBITDA last year. That last figure is up from the €75m generated at the time of the 2013 refinancing, but still shy of the €123m posted when LBO France acquired the business in 2006.

The company is the result of the merger of two firms in November 2005, French business Bonna Sabla and Finnish business Consolis. Bonna and Sabla were both founded in the 1890s as a supplier of pressure pipes and a lime manufacturer, respectively, while Consolis commenced operations in the 1940s.

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