Bowlero, American Greetings free to trade; Indicor, First Brands revisions surface

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, Feb. 2 – Bowlero Corp.’s term loan B made its way into the secondary market on Thursday, with levels quoted above its original issue discount, and American Greetings Corp.’s first-lien term loan broke as well.

Meanwhile, in the primary market, Indicor (Roper Industrial Products Investment Co. LLC) modified price talk on its U.S. and euro first-lien term loans and tightened original issue discount guidance on both tranches, and First Brands Group LLC increased the size of its incremental first-lien term loan.

Also, Inspire Brands Inc. (IRB Holdings Corp.) and United Talent Agency released price talk on their loan transactions in connection with lender calls, and Ineos Group Holdings joined this week’s primary calendar.

Bowlero hits secondary

Bowlero’s $900 million term loan B (B1/B) due February 2028 freed to trade on Thursday, with levels quoted at par bid, par ½ offered, a market source remarked.

Pricing on the term loan is SOFR plus 350 basis points with a 0% floor and it was sold at an original issue discount of 99.5. The debt has 101 soft call protection for six months.

During syndication, pricing on the term loan was reduced from talk in the range of SOFR plus 375 bps to 400 bps, and the discount was tightened from revised talk of 99 and initial talk of 98.

JPMorgan Chase Bank and Wells Fargo Securities LLC are leading the deal that will be used to refinance a roughly $786 million term loan due July 2024 priced at Libor plus 350 bps with a 1% floor, repay revolver borrowings and add cash to the balance sheet.

Bowlero is a Mechanicsville, Va.-based operator of bowling centers.

American Greetings breaks

American Greetings’ roughly $402 million senior secured first-lien term loan due April 6, 2028 also began trading, with levels quoted at 97¼ bid, 98¼ offered before moving up to 98¼ bid, 99¼ offered, according to a market source.

Pricing on the loan is SOFR plus 600 bps with a 1% floor and it was sold at an original issue discount of 97. The loan has 101 soft call protection for six months, no CSA and a ticking fee of half the margin after 45 days.

During syndication, the term loan was upsized from roughly $282 million, pricing was increased from talk in the range of SOFR plus 475 bps to 500 bps, the maturity date was changed from April 6, 2026 and the ticking fee was added.

Barclays is leading the deal that will be used to amend and extend an existing roughly $282 million senior secured first-lien term loan due April 2024 priced at Libor plus 450 bps with a 1% floor and, due to the recent upsizing, to refinance $120 million of senior notes due April 2025.

American Greetings is a Cleveland-based celebration solutions provider offering greeting cards, gift packaging, party goods, gifting products and digital offerings.

Indicor tweaked

Moving to the primary market, Indicor trimmed pricing on its $1,230,484,042 first-lien term loan (B1/B) due Nov. 22, 2029 to SOFR plus 475 bps from SOFR plus 500 bps and changed original issue discount talk to a range of 95.5 to 96 from 94, a market source said.

In addition, price talk on the company’s €300 million first-lien term loan (B1/B) due Nov. 22, 2029 was revised to Euribor plus 500 bps from talk in the range of Euribor plus 500 bps to 525 bps, and the discount talk was updated to a range of 94.5 to 95 from 93, the source continued.

And, some lender friendly revisions were made to documentation.

As before, the U.S. term loan has a 0.5% floor, the euro term loan has a 0% floor and both term loans have 101 soft call protection for one year.

Commitments for the U.S. term loan are due at noon ET on Friday, accelerated from 5 p.m. ET on Friday, and the commitment deadline for the euro term loan was unchanged at noon ET on Friday, the source added. Allocations are still expected on Monday.

Indicor lead banks

UBS Investment Bank, BNP Paribas Securities Corp., RBC Capital Markets, BMO Capital Markets, Mizuho, Natixis, TD Securities and Santander are the arrangers on Indicor’s credit facilities, with UBS the left lead on the U.S. loan and BNP left on the euro loan.

Along with the first-lien term loans, the credit facilities include a $300 million revolver (B1/B) due Nov. 22, 2027 and a $475 million privately placed second-lien term loan due Nov. 22, 2030.

The credit facilities were used to help fund Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC’s roughly $2.6 billion acquisition of a majority stake in the industrial products businesses of Roper Technologies Inc., rebranded as Indicor. The transaction closed on Nov. 22, 2022. Roper retained a 49% minority interest in Indicor.

Indicor is a provider of products and services within three primary product categories: material preparation and testing, sensors and controls, and flow control.

First Brands upsized

First Brands lifted its fungible incremental senior secured first-lien term loan due March 30, 2027 to $300 million from $250 million, according to a market source.

Like the existing $425 million incremental term loan that was completed in December 2022, the new incremental term loan is priced at SOFR+CSA plus 500 bps with a 1% floor and has 101 soft call protection through June 15, 2023. CSA is 11.448 bps one-month rate, 26.161 bps three-month rate and 42.826 bps six-month rate.

As before, the incremental term loan has an original issue discount of 96.

Jefferies LLC is leading the deal, which will be used to fund acquisitions.

First Brands is a Rochester, Mich.-based automotive aftermarket platform offering comprehensive solutions for consumable maintenance and mission-critical repair parts.

Inspire comes to market

Inspire Brands held a lender call at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday, launching a $1.75 billion senior secured first-lien term loan B-3 due Dec. 15, 2027 at talk of SOFR+CSA plus 325 bps with a 0.75% floor, an original issue discount of 98.5 to 99 and 101 soft call protection for six months, according to a market source.

CSA is 10 bps one-month rate, 15 bps three-month rate and 25 bps six-month rate.

Commitments are due at 5 p.m. ET on Feb. 9, the source added.

Barclays is the left lead on the loan that will be used with anticipated variable funding note (VFN) proceeds to refinance an existing $2.488 billion term loan B-1 due February 2025.

Inspire Brands is an Atlanta-based multi-brand restaurant company.

United Talent holds call

United Talent Agency emerged in the morning with plans to hold a lender call at 11 a.m. ET to launch a non-fungible $250 million incremental term loan B (B2/B+) due July 2028 talked at SOFR+CSA plus 400 bps with a 0.75% floor, an original issue discount of 97.5 to 98 and 101 soft call protection for six months, a market source remarked.

CSA is roughly 11 bps one-month rate, 26 bps three-month rate and 43 bps six-month rate.

Commitments are due at 5 p.m. ET on Feb. 9, the source added.

JPMorgan Chase Bank, BofA Securities Inc. and MUFG are leading the deal that will be used to pay down revolver borrowings and add cash to the balance sheet for general corporate purposes and potential mergers and acquisitions.

United Talent is a Los Angeles-based talent and entertainment company.

Ineos readies deal

Ineos set a lender call for 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday to launch a new U.S. term loan B due February 2030 and a fungible add-on euro term loan B due November 2027, according to a market source. The company will raise €2 billion equivalent between the term loans and other secured debt.

The U.S. term loan is talked at SOFR plus 375 bps to 400 bps with a 0% floor, an original issue discount of 98.5 and 101 soft call protection for one year, and the add-on euro term loan is talked at Euribor plus 400 bps with a 0% floor, a discount of 97 to 97.5 and 101 soft call protection until November 2023, the source said.

Commitments are due at 10 a.m. ET on Feb. 9.

Barclays is the active bookrunner on the U.S. loan. Barclays, BNP Paribas Securities Corp. and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. are joint global coordinators and active bookrunners on the euro loan. Goldman Sachs, HSBC and ING are joint global coordinators. China Construction Bank, Credit Agricole, First Abu Dhabi, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Mizuho, MUFG and Santander are passive bookrunners. Barclays is the agent.

The London-based chemicals company will use the new debt to repay its remaining U.S. and euro term loan Bs due 2024 and for general corporate purposes.

The U.S. borrower is Ineos US Finance LLC, and the euro borrower is Ineos Finance plc.

Fund flows

In other news, actively managed loan fund flows on Wednesday were negative $45 million and loan ETFs were positive $25 million, market sources said.

The tracking estimate for Thursday night’s weekly Lipper numbers for loans are outflows totaling $540 million, sources added.

Loan indices mixed

IHS Markit’s iBoxx loan indices were mixed on Wednesday, with the Leveraged Loan indexes (MiLLi) closing out the day up 0.02% and the Liquid Leveraged Loan indices (LLLi) closing out the day down 0.07%.

Month to date, the MiLLi is up 0.02% and year to date it is up 2.6%, and the LLLi is down 0.07% month to date and up 2.56% year to date.

Average secondary market bids in the U.S. on Wednesday were 92.57, up 0.02% from the previous day and up 0.74% year to date.

According to the IHS Markit data, some of the top advancers on Wednesday were National CineMedia’s June 2018 term loan B at 28.80, up from 27, Telesat Canada’s December 2019 covenant-lite term loan at 48, up from 45.65, and AMC Entertainment’s April 2019 covenant-lite term loan B at 61.83, up from 59.

Some top decliners on Wednesday were Loyalty Ventures’ November 2021 covenant-lite term loan B at 36.72, down from 38.75, Yak Mat’s June 2018 covenant-lite term loan B at 38.31, down from 39.05, and Catalina Marketing’s February 2019 first-out term loan at 76.55, down from 77.67.

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