Liberty Global enters race for Ono

Liberty Global, the international media company, is considering a €7bn bid for the firm, according to reports. Vodafone was thought to have prepared a bid for the asset earlier this week. 

Ono's private equity backers are also thought to be considering a flotation in Madrid. 

Ono received a €200m equity injection from its backers Providence Equity Partners, Thomas H Lee Partners, Quadrangle Capital Partners and GE Structured Finance in 2010, according to unquote" data. 

The new capital consisted of €125m in cash that was injected into the company immediately via a deeply subordinated payment-in-kind loan. The firm also received the approval of 80% of its 79 senior lenders for a refinancing plan. The remaining €75m was to be held in an escrow account and subject to liquidity tests.

Under the refinancing proposal, senior lenders were asked to approve plans to issue new debt to refinance Ono's €3.6bn loan as the company moved to head off liquidity and covenant issues that would have arisen in Q2 2010.

At the time of the deal, the company had a total outstanding debt of €3.99bn, including €450m in bonds maturing in 2014.

In July 2005, Providence, JP Morgan Partners, Quadrangle and Thomas H Lee Partners agreed to pay around €1.3bn for a 51% stake in Ono. The total value of the transaction was reported as €2.25bn, which included €237m of rolled-over debt.

The transaction also saw Ono wholly acquire Auna Tlc, the fixed line and cable business of Auna Group. The firm signed commitment letters with 16 financial institutions for €3.5bn of financing that enabled the acquisition. The financing was structured as a €3.1bn senior secured facility, a €130m subordinated facility and a €270m high-yield bridge loan. ABN Amro, Calyon, Fortis Bank and Banco Santander were the bookrunners on the senior facilities.

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