Pan-European satellite TV provider M7 Group is reportedly planning a €355m recapitalisation to refinance its debt and provide a special dividend to its private equity owners.
According to banking sources cited by Reuters, the financing will comprise a…
Pan-European satellite TV provider M7 Group is reportedly planning a €355m recapitalisation to refinance its debt and provide a special dividend to its private equity owners.
According to banking sources cited by Reuters, the financing will comprise a €270m 7-year term loan B, a €75m 6-year term loan A and a €10m 6-year revolver. BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank are allegedly lead arrangers and managers on the deal.
On completion, proceeds from the transaction would be used to fund a special dividend of approximately €300m to M7’s owners Providence Equity Partners and Airbridge Investments.
Neither M7 nor Providence were available to comment on the reports.
Luxembourg-based M7 was established in October 2009 as the holding company for a group of European DTH providers that have been purchased by the sponsors over the past few years.
Providence initially purchased a 50% stake in the Netherlands’ largest DTH provider Canal Digitaal and Flanders-based TV Vlaanderen from Airbridge in 2007. The two funds subsequently acquired TéléSAT in Belgium.
In October 2010, M7 launched AustriaSat in Austria and then a year later it purchased Czech and Slovak DTH platforms CS Link and Skylink.
The company has also been rumoured to be looking at similar deals in Ukraine and Romania.
M7 has a long standing relationship with Luxembourg-based SES to lease capacity from the latter’s Astra satellites for its services.
