UK cableco Virgin Media is seeking further amendments to a £1.93bn senior credit facility that was secured on 16 March 2010.
Following an earlier amendment dated 26 March to increase its flexibility, the group believes further adjustments are required…
UK cableco Virgin Media is seeking further amendments to a £1.93bn senior credit facility that was secured on 16 March 2010.
Following an earlier amendment dated 26 March to increase its flexibility, the group believes further adjustments are required to aid its operations and access to capital markets.
In a statement posted on the company’s website yesterday, it explained: “Key terms of the proposed amendments include, amongst others, fixing total net leverage at not more than 3.75 times operating cash flow from year-end 2011 (reduced from 4.3 times for year-end 2011 under current terms), and increasing the ability of the company to incur secured debt to a maximum of three times operating cash flow.”
In addition, Virgin Media is asking lenders to remove restrictions on using the facility’s proceeds for the payment of dividends or distributions to the group.
Lenders are being offered a fee of 20BP for agreeing to these proposed amendments.
Separately, the group is also offering lenders to its £1bn term loan A portion of the facility a fee of 15BP to extend a £200m amortisation payment, scheduled for June 2014, by a year.
“After giving pro forma effect to repayment of scheduled amortisations through 2013, totalling £525 million, this would result in total amortisations of £1.15bn in 2015, commensurate with the company’s prudent approach toward possible future refinancings,” Virgin Media stated.
BoA Merrill Lynch, BNP, Credit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, GE Capital, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Lloyds Banking Group, RBS and UBS arranged the facility last March, a spokesman confirmed to TelecomFinance.
According to the group, it has received the approval of the ten lenders that supported its original March 2010 facility, representing around 57% of the agreement’s voting rights. Remaining lenders have until 14 February 2011 to agree to the changes.
