Comdata’s restructuring agreement envisages the provision of €25 million super senior new money to the Italian BPO services provider, sources close to the situation told Reorg.
The company is in talks with a number of investment funds willing to provide the new money, including Cheyne Capital which holds about €50 million of the group’s debt.
As
reported, Comdata, its sponsor Carlyle and the company’s lender committee have reached a preliminary agreement on the group’s debt restructuring plan. The plan envisions converting 30% of the company’s debt into equity-like instruments called
strumenti finanziari partecipativi, or SFP. No timeline for Carlyle’s exit has been agreed.
The restructuring proposal is expected to be implemented via an out-of-court agreement under art. 67 of Italy’s insolvency law, sources said.
Comdata is advised by Houlihan Lokey, Latham & Watkins and Molinari e Associati. The lender committee, which is advised by Rothschild and Linklaters, represents more than 50% of the debt and consists of funds and banks including CQS, Investcorp, GSO, BNP Paribas, CA CIB, and Société Générale.
Comdata’s debt consists of a €510 million term loan B due in 2024, a €20 million draw under its €85 million RCF and €32.7 million of other bank debt. At the end of February, SMBC, one of Comdata lenders, sold some of the term loan and RCF at 55 to 56.
In October 2020, the company appointed Maxime Didier as its new CEO, replacing Alessandro Zunino.
Management told lenders in mid-October 2020 that Comdata will fully recover at the end of 2021 after disruptions caused by the Covid-19 crisis. The group is targeting EBITDA of about €75 million by the end of 2021 and said that June 2020 revenue had already rebounded to pre-Covid levels.
The company and Carlyle agreed to a covenant reset with lenders in December 2019 in exchange for more than €20 million of equity invested in the business. Under the agreement, leverage was capped at 7.75x until September 2020 before dropping to 7.5x in December 2020, 7.25x in March 2021, 7x in September 2021 and December 2021, 6.75x in March 2022 and June 2022, 6.5x in September 2022, 6.25x in December 2022, 6x in March 2023, 5.75x in June 2023 and 5.5x in September 2023.
EMEA Covenants’ legal analysts have reviewed Comdata’s 2016 and 2017 loan documentation. You can get access to these reports if you have a copy of the SFA. To get in touch with our team, click HERE.
-- Luca Rossi