GVC agrees new revolving credit facility to provide greater flexibility

London-listed betting and gaming operator GVC Holdings has agreed a new £535m revolving credit facility (RCF) with its existing lending banks. 

The new RCF is on substantially the same terms as GVC's previous RCF, which has now been cancelled, except for a revised covenant limit. 

As per the previous RCF, the covenant of net debt/EBITDA will be measured on a trailing 12-month pre IFRS-16 basis only if the facility is drawn by more than 35 per cent at a quarter-end. 

For the quarter-ends up to and including 30 September 2021, the covenant limit will be no more than 6x net debt/EBITDA, thereafter the limit will return to 4x.

The facility is currently undrawn, with GVC confirming earlier this month that it is in a robust financial position, with accessible cash of over £350m at the end of Q1 2020. Of this amount, over £250m is cash at hand after excluding cash in shops, ringfenced PSP funds and other items which may not be immediately available.

“Having taken early and decisive actions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on our business, we are confident that we can achieve our target of breakeven cashflow per month during this crisis,” said GVC chief financial officer Rob Wood.

“I am delighted that we have reached agreement with our key lending banks on this revised RCF which will provide us with further financial flexibility to continue on our path of excellent growth momentum. We remain well placed to take advantage of a range of attractive growth opportunities which we believe will be available to us.”

Shares in GVC Holdings plc (LSE:GVC) gained 2.95 per cent to 746.20 pence per share in London earlier Tuesday.