Advantage Sales & Marketing, American Greetings free to trade; GM rallies as refi rumors persist

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, March 31 - Advantage Sales & Marketing Inc.'s credit facility broke for trading on Friday, with the term loan quoted atop 101, and American Greetings Corp.'s credit facility freed up as well, with its term loan quoted right atop par.

Also, in trading, General Motors Corp.'s revolver skyrocketed into the upper-90's as the refinancing buzz continued to entice investors to buy paper.

Advantage Sales & Marketing's credit facility hit the secondary on Friday, with the $480 million seven-year first-lien term loan quoted at 101 bid, 101½ offered from the break through the close, according to a trader.

The term loan is priced with an interest rate of Libor plus 200 basis points. During syndication, pricing on the tranche was reduced from original price talk at launch of Libor plus 250 basis points on strong demand.

Advantage Sales' $540 million senior secured credit facility also contains a $60 million six-year revolver with an interest rate of Libor plus 250 basis points.

UBS and Citigroup acted as joint lead arrangers and bookrunners on the deal.

Proceeds were used to help fund the acquisition of Advantage Sales by J.W. Childs Associates LP and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity Allied Capital Corp. in a transaction with an enterprise value of $1.05 billion. The successful completion of the acquisition was announced on Thursday.

Advantage Sales & Marketing is an Irvine, Calif., sales and marketing agency.

American Greetings breaks

Also freeing for trading on Friday was American Greetings' credit facility, with its $350 million delayed-draw term loan quoted at par ¼ bid, par ½ offered, according to a trader.

The delayed-draw term loan is priced with an interest rate of Libor plus 150 basis points, with a 62.5 basis point ticking fee.

American Greetings' $650 million credit facility also contains a $300 million revolver.

UBS and NatCity are the lead banks on the deal that will be used to refinance existing debt.

American Greetings is a Cleveland-based greeting card company.

GM revs up on refi talk

GM's revolving credit facility grinded higher by another couple of points as talk of a refinancing potentially being in the works continued to flood the marketplace, and following Thursday's market technically driven retreat, investors figured that the paper now afforded them a good buying opportunity, according to a trader.

The revolver closed Friday's session quoted at 95 bid, 97 offered, up about 5 points from Thursday's levels of 90 bid, 92 offered, the trader said. And, at some point during Friday's market hours, the revolver had actually reached a height of 98 bid for a brief while.

The momentum in GM's revolver really started on Wednesday as investors viewed some remarks in the company's 10-K filing as an implication that a refinancing of the $5.6 billion unsecured line of credit is soon to come.

GM had said in the filing that it is exploring the possibility of amending or replacing its existing revolver with new terms since it is unsure as to whether lenders would allow any borrowings under the facility due to the recent restatement of prior financial statements.

The company needed to restate financial results for its financing arm, General Motors Acceptance Corp., from 2003 through the third quarter of 2005 as a result of improper classification and presentation of cash flows for certain mortgage loans.

Quickly after news of these refinancing allusions flowed among market players, the Detroit-based automotive company's revolver jumped to levels of 92½ bid, 94 offered from the previously seen 83 bid, 84 offered context.

But, on Thursday, levels on the paper had come in by about 2 points as people were probably just engaging in some profit taking. Once those levels went down, investors saw a good buying opportunity, helping to push the paper to the much stronger levels seen on Friday, the trader explained.

"The market figures they're doing this thing over, it's just a matter of time. We'll see if there's any truth to this refi stuff. Otherwise this 15 point jump is ridiculous," the trader said.

"There was an article [Friday] saying that GM is deciding on April 3 whether or not the 51% stake in GMAC will be sold. If they do sell it, they'll have more near-term liquidity so they could push this refi thing off. That's why [the revolver] is not at like 99 right now," the trader added.

In addition, the Wall Street Journal has recently reported that GM is close to selling its GMAC stake to an investor group led by private equity company Cerberus Capital Management for $11 billion.

The other front runner in the GMAC bid is a group led Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., which, according to reports, would give GM estimated proceeds of $13 billion.

Nuance closes

Nuance Communications Inc. closed on its new $430 million senior secured credit facility (B1/B) Friday, according to a news release, consisting of a $355 million seven-year term loan B with an interest rate of Libor plus 200 basis points and a $75 million six-year revolver that carries a 50 basis point commitment fee.

During syndication, pricing on the term loan B was reverse flexed from Libor plus 225 basis points on strong market demand.

UBS Investment Bank and Credit Suisse acted as joint lead arrangers on the deal, UBS, Credit Suisse and Citigroup acted as joint bookrunners, and Citigroup and Bank of America acted as co-arrangers, with UBS administrative agent and Citigroup documentation agent.

Proceeds from the facility were used to fund the acquisition of Dictaphone Corp. for $359 million in cash.

Nuance is a Burlington, Mass.-based provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers. Dictaphone is a Stratford, Conn.-based provider of dictation, transcription, speech recognition and natural language processing systems in the health care market.

Fresenius closes

Fresenius Medical Care AG completed its acquisition of Renal Care Group Inc. on Friday, with which Renal shareholders will receive $48 per common share, according to a company news release.

To help fund the purchase, Fresenius got a new $4.6 billion credit facility (BB) consisting of a $1 billion revolver, a $1.85 billion five-year term loan A and a $1.75 billion term loan B, with all three tranches priced at Libor plus 137.5 basis points.

During syndication of the term loan B, the term loan A was downsized from $2 billion, the term loan B was downsized from $2 billion and pricing on the term loan B was cut from original talk at launch of Libor plus 150 basis points to 175 basis points.

The revolver and term loan A were actually syndicated in June of last year. Originally, the term loan A was sized at $1.5 billion, but during the 2005 syndication process, the company had shifted $500 million out of its not-yet-launched term loan B into its term loan A. In addition, during the pro rata syndication, pricing on both the revolver and the term loan A was reverse flexed from original price talk at launch of Libor plus 150 basis points.

Bank of America and Deutsche Bank acted as the lead banks on the credit facility, with Bank of America the left lead.

Fresenius is a Bad Homburg, Germany-based dialysis products and services provider. Renal Care is a Nashville, Tenn.-based dialysis service provider.

Epicor closes

Epicor Software Corp. closed on its new $200 million senior secured credit facility (B1/B+), consisting of a $100 million six-year term loan B with an interest rate of Libor plus 250 basis points and a $100 million three-year revolver with an interest rate of Libor plus 240 basis points.

KeyBanc Capital Markets acted as lead arranger on the deal, and Bank of America acted as documentation agent.

Proceeds are being used to refinance the company's existing $125 million revolver and will also be available for general corporate purposes, including future acquisitions.

Epicor is an Irvine, Calif., provider of integrated enterprise software solutions to mid-market companies.

FiberVisions closes

Snow, Phipps & Guggenheim LP completed its acquisition of a 51% interest in FiberVisions LLC from Hercules Inc., according to a news release.

To help fund this transaction, FiberVisions got a new $110 million credit facility, consisting of $20 million five-year revolver (B2/B) with an interest rate of Libor plus 325 basis points and a 50 basis point commitment fee, a $70 million seven-year term loan B (B2/B) with an interest rate of Libor plus 325 basis points and a $20 million 71/2-year second-lien term loan (Caa1/CCC+) with an interest rate of Libor plus 700 basis points.

Credit Suisse acted as the lead bank on the deal.

FiberVisions is a Covington, Ga., producer of specialty fibers for nonwoven fabrics and textile fibers.

Quintiles closes

Quintiles Transnational Corp. closed on its new $1.445 billion credit facility, according to a news release, consisting of a $225 million revolver due 2012 (B1/BB-) with an initial interest rate of Libor plus 225 basis points, a $1 billion first-lien term B due 2013 (B1/BB-) with an interest rate of Libor plus 200 basis points and a $220 million second-lien term loan C due 2014 (B3/B) with an interest rate of Libor plus 400 basis points and call protection of 102 in year one and 101 in year two.

During syndication, the first-lien term loan was upsized from $900 million with pricing coming down from Libor plus 225 basis points, the second-lien term loan was downsized from $320 million with pricing coming down from Libor plus 450 basis points, and the revolver was downsized from $250 million.

Citigroup, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley acted as the lead banks on the deal, with Citi the left lead.

Proceeds, along with cash on hand, were used to fund the tender offer for Quintiles' $450 million 10% senior subordinated notes due 2013 and Pharma Services Intermediate Holding Corp.'s $219 million 11.5% senior discount notes due 2014.

Quintiles is a Durham, N.C., pharmaceutical services company.

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