Spanish bank BBVA sold €260 million of Eroski’s debt this week, sources told Reorg. The piece was sold in the 40s. In December, Sabadell sold a €130 million piece of the Basque supermarket company’s debt via Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which paid 30 cents for it.
Eroski’s banks are seeking to divest from their positions less than a year after the company’s €1.54 billion
refinancing in March 2019, sources said. Additional trades may follow, they added.
The 2019 refinancing gathered the consent of banks representing 95.57% of the financial debt, and pushed out maturities until July 31, 2024. The agreement
divided Eroski’s debt into two tranches in accordance with the group's business plan. One tranche is amortizing and accounts for approximately €1 billion, paying interest Euribor+2.5%. The second is a bullet tranche for €540 million, paying a maximum interest rate of 0.5%.
The agreement also
included the maintenance of the company's current operating lines of credit, totaling approximately €372 million, and which Eroski has been using for its regular operations. Eroski was not required to divest any asset in particular, but the agreement included a reorganization of the company’s commercial subsidiaries until the end of 2021, sources said.
In December, Eroski hired auditor PwC to sell Catalan subsidiary Caprabo, according to Spanish press
reports. In 2018, Caprabo was the most valued subsidiary within Eroski’s corporate structure,
according to a KPMG independent business review commissioned by the supermarket’s lenders including Santander, BBVA, Caixabank and Sabadell.
Eroski bought a majority
stake in Caprabo SA in 2007 for about €1.7 billion, an investment that weighed on the company’s debt structure, leading to its 2014
refinancing. Caprabo operates supermarkets mainly in Catalonia, Navarra and Andorra in Spain, and
reported EBITDA €33 million lower than expected for the first half of 2019, as well as a 12% drop in revenue to €360.4 million from €409 million year over year.