FRANCE - Wendel restructures Materis' debt

A pool of 199 lenders have agreed to the deferral of amortization, as well as the capitalisation of mezzanine interest, which will result in EUR 70m of extra liquidity by 2013. Furthermore a EUR 100m acquisition and capital expenditure facility will be made available, in addition to a EUR 40m basket of factoring.

Wendel backed the secondary buyout of Materis from LBO France in April 2006 in a deal valued at more than EUR 2bn. Calyon, Mizuho and BNP Paribas provided a debt package totalling EUR 1.3bn of senior loan notes, EUR 140m of second-lien facilities and EUR 260 of mezzanine.

Materis has been in talks with lenders since April, when it sought a delay to amortisation payments on the EUR 300m A-tranche debt in return for a 25 basis points fee. At the time it was felt that creditors may seek a higher fee as the company is performing relatively well despite the wider downturn in the sector.

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