Ladbrokes strengthens balance sheet with debt maturity extension
16th June 2014 7:07 am GMTUK bookmaker Ladbrokes has announced that its balance sheet re-financing to extend its existing bank facilities has been completed.
Together with its recently completed its £100m retail bond offering, Ladbrokes said that this had resulted in an extension of debt maturity “on attractive terms” as well as diversifying its sources of finance.
The re-financing follows from the launch last month of a £100m 5.125 per cent sterling retail bond with 8.25 year maturity. Strong investor demand saw the offer oversubscribed and closing early, the company said.
With the proceeds from the bond issue to be used to pay down existing bank debt, Ladbrokes has successfully extended the maturity to June 2019 of £350m of its previous £540m bank facilities (due to expire in 2016) and cancelled a surplus £135mof the previous facilities.
As the result of these actions, Ladbrokes total debt financing stands at £730m, with an extended maturity profile.
Facility | Maturity | |
£55m (bank facilities) | December 2016 | |
£225m (7.625% existing institutional bond) | March 2017 | |
£350m (bank facilities) | June 2019 | |
£100m (5.125% retail bond) | September 2022 |
“We are delighted to announce the completion of our re-financing work well ahead of our existing facilities maturing,” said Ladbrokes chief financial officer Ian Bull. “With constructive and strong support from our bank and debt investors, we were able to use both the bank and bond market to enhance the flexibility and length of our debt profile and further strengthen the Ladbrokes' balance sheet.”
Shares in Ladbrokes plc (Co. Data) (LSE:LAD) were trading down 1.55 per cent at 145.87 pence per share in London earlier Monday.