Hayfin becomes majority shareholder in Frans Bonhomme

Alessia Argentieri
15 July 2020

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Hayfin Capital Management has become the majority shareholder in Frans Bonhomme, a French plastic pipes specialist, through a €60m capital injection.

Hayfin specialises in private equity, direct lending, special opportunities, high-yield credit and structured credit strategies. It has been the main creditor of Frans Bonhomme since 2014.

Following this deal, former majority shareholder Centerbridge Partners, which invested in the company in 2013, will retain a minority stake in the business.

In addition to this recapitalisation, the company will receive a €60m loan, guaranteed by the French government via its Prêt garanti par l'État (PGE) programme, from a pool of French banks and lenders led by CIC and BNP Paribas.

Frans Bonhomme has a long history of private equity ownership and has been facing severe cashflow issues in the last decade.

Previous funding
Apax invested in Frans Bonhomme as part of a consortium, alongside Fonds Partnenaires and Gaz et Eaux, in 1994.

Cinven, PAI Partners and Astorg Partners backed Frans Bonhomme in February 2000 by acquiring a 31.4%, 31.4% and 16.8% stake, respectively, from the consortium. They sold their holdings back to Apax in June 2003 in a deal that valued the company at around €520m.

Cinven bought back the company for nearly €900m from Apax in 2005, including a debt package believed to have been worth €775m at the time.

In the following years, faced with cashflow and current trading difficulties, Frans Bonhomme saw its debt progressively bought by hedge funds including Centerbridge and Angelo Gordon.

In 2013, Cinven chose to pre-empt negotiations with its creditors and let them take over the business, which reported debt of around €600m.

Company
Established in 1935, Frans Bonhomme is a distributor of plastic pipes and fittings. It sells its products in 438 stores, employing 2,850 staff and serving approximately 100,000 clients.

The company is headquartered in Paris and has a presence in Spain, with 22 stores and 150 employees. It generated revenues of around €900m in 2019.

People
Frans Bonhomme – Pierre Fleck (president).
Hayfin Capital Management – Cecile Davies (managing director).
Centerbridge – Oliver Stork (managing director).