Weather Channel, Dunkin', Microsemi break; Freescale loan revised; Select Medical deal emerges

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, Feb. 8 - Weather Channel's term loan made its way into the secondary market on Friday at par-plus levels, and Dunkin' Brands Inc. and Microsemi Corp. freed up for trading as well.

Over in the primary, Freescale Semiconductor Inc. revised the offer price on its shorter-dated term loan and reduced the tenor of the soft call protection, details on Select Medical Corp.'s incremental term loan B surfaced with its launch, Smart & Final Holdings Corp. revealed priced talk and TransDigm Inc. released the full line up of leads on its credit facility.

In addition, Polyconcept, Latisys Corp., Mitel Networks Corp. and SRS Distribution Inc. revealed new credit facility plans, and Dematic announced that it will be approaching lenders with a repricing.

Weather Channel starts trading

Weather Channel's roughly $1.6 billion term loan B broke for trading on Friday, with levels quoted at par ¼ bid, par ¾ offered, according to a market source.

Pricing on the loan is Libor plus 275 basis points, after firming recently at the high end of the Libor plus 250 bps to 275 bps talk. There is a 0.75% Libor floor and 101 soft call protection for six months, and the debt was issued at par.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Goldman Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC are leading the deal that will reprice an existing term loan from Libor plus 325 bps with a 1% Libor floor.

Weather Channel is an Atlanta-based media company devoted to bringing weather news via television, internet and mobile devices.

Dunkin' hits secondary

Dunkin' Brands' credit facility allocated too, with its $1,853,000,000 term loan due February 2020 freeing up for trading at 99¾ bid, par ¼ offered, traders said.

Pricing on the term loan is Libor plus 275 bps, after firming at the wide end of the Libor plus 250 bps to 275 bps talk. There is a 1% Libor floor and 101 soft call protection for six months, and it was sold at an original issue discount of 993/4.

The company's $1,953,000,000 senior secured credit facility also includes a $100 million revolver due February 2018.

Barclays is leading the deal that will refinance a $100 million revolver due Nov. 23, 2015 and a $1,853,000,000 term loan due Nov. 23, 2017 that is priced at Libor plus 300 bps with a 1% Libor floor.

Closing is expected during the week of Feb. 11.

Dunkin' Brands is a Canton, Mass.-based franchisor of quick-service restaurants serving hot and cold coffee and baked goods as well as hard-serve ice cream.

Microsemi frees up

Microsemi's $726 million seven-year covenant-light term loan also hit the secondary market, with levels quoted at par 3/8 bid, par 7/8 offered, according to a market source.

Pricing on the loan is Libor plus 275 bps with a 1% Libor floor, and it was issued at par. There is 101 soft call protection for one year.

This transaction is repricing the existing term loan from Libor plus 300 bps with a 1% Libor floor extending the maturity from Feb. 2, 2018 and removing financial covenants.

The company's revolver covenants will apply when the revolver is drawn.

Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc. is the lead arranger on the deal that is expected close on Feb. 19.

Microsemi is an Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based provider of semiconductor services.

Freescale tweaks deal

Moving to the primary, Freescale Semiconductor changed the offer price on its $350 million senior secured term loan due December 2016 to par from 99½ and shortened the 101 soft call protection to six months from one year, according to a market source.

Pricing on the 2016 loan, which was added to the capital structure earlier in the syndication process, is still Libor plus 325 bps with a 1% Libor floor.

In addition, the company is getting a $2.38 billion senior secured term loan due 2020 that is priced at Libor plus 375 bps with a 1.25% Libor floor and a discount of 99, and has 101 soft call protection for one year. This tranche was downsized from $2.73 billion when the 2016 term loan was added.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC are the leading the new debt (B) that will be used to repay existing term loans due in 2016 and 2019.

Freescale is an Austin, Texas-based designer and manufacturer of embedded semiconductors.

Select Medical holds call

Select Medical hosted a lender call at 1 p.m. ET on Friday, and shortly before the call kicked off, investors were told that the company would be using the event to launch a $250 million incremental term loan B due 2016, according to a market source.

Price talk on the incremental loan is Libor plus 325 basis points to 350 bps with no Libor floor and an original issue discount of 991/2, and the debt includes 101 soft call protection for six months, the source said.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC leading the deal that will be used to call the company's 7 5/8% senior subordinated notes due 2015 and Libor plus 575 bps floating-rate HoldCo notes due 2015.

Late Thursday, the company had announced that it would be seeking an incremental loan under its senior secured credit facility, but no further details were released at that time.

Select Medical is a Mechanicsburg, Pa.-based operator of specialty hospitals and outpatient rehabilitation clinics.

Smart & Final talk

Smart & Final came out with talk of Libor plus 325 bps to 350 bps with a 1% Libor floor, a par offer price and 101 soft call protection for six months on its $525 million first-lien term loan B due Nov. 15, 2019 that launched with a call in the afternoon, according to a market source.

Proceeds will be used to reprice the existing term loan from Libor plus 450 bps with a 1.25% Libor floor.

Commitments are due at noon ET on Feb. 15. Closing is expected during the week of Feb. 18, the source said.

Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc., BofA Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. are leading the deal.

Smart & Final is a Commerce, Calif.-based warehouse-style, no membership fee, multi-format retailer serving households and smaller businesses.

TransDigm leads emerge

TransDigm disclosed in an 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the joint lead arrangers on its $2.51 billion credit facility include - in addition to Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and UBS Securities LLC - Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc. and Citigroup Global Markets Inc.

As previously reported, the facility, which launched with a call on Friday morning, consists of a $310 million five-year revolver and a $2.2 billion seven-year first-lien covenant-light term loan.

Price talk on the term loan is Libor plus 275 bps with a 0.75% Libor floor and a par offer price, and there is 101 repricing protection for one year.

Proceeds will be used to refinance/reprice an existing credit facility, including a $2.2 billion term loan that is priced at Libor plus 300 bps with a 1% Libor floor.

TransDigm amending

With the refinancing/repricing, TransDigm is asking to amend its credit facility to set the revolver net leverage ratio at 6 times with no step-downs and remove the interest coverage ratio.

Furthermore, the amendment will provide for an unlimited restricted payments basket if net leverage is below 5.75 times, the revolver is undrawn and there's a minimum pro forma cash balance of $200 million.

Also, the amendment will allow for an up to $250 million accounts receivable securitization basket, permit loan repurchases below par value, allow for the entrance into an up to $1 billion joint venture and give lenders the ability to reject mandatory prepayments from asset sales and excess cash flow.

Commitments and consents are due by noon ET on Wednesday and closing is targeted for Feb. 19.

TransDigm is a Cleveland-based maker of aircraft components.

Polyconcept readies deal

Polyconcept set a bank meeting for 11 a.m. ET in New York on Tuesday to launch a $540 million credit facility, according to a market source.

The facility consists of a $100 million five-year super-priority revolver and a $440 million seven-year senior secured term loan B, the source said, adding that price talk is not yet available.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is leading the deal that will be used to refinance an existing credit facility.

Polyconcept is a Netherlands-based promotional products supplier.

Latisys coming soon

Latisys scheduled a bank meeting for 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday to launch a $200 million credit facility that consists of a $20 million revolver and a $180 million term loan B, according to a market source.

RBC Capital Markets, TD Securities (USA) LLC and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc. are the lead banks on the deal.

Proceeds will refinance existing debt and fund general corporate purposes.

Latisys is a provider of data center, managed services and disaster recovery services with facilities located in the Ashburn, Chicago, Denver and Irvine markets.

Mitel joins calendar

Mitel Networks will hold a bank meeting on Monday morning to launch a $320 million credit facility that is being led by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, RBC Capital Markets LLC and KKR Capital, according to a market source.

The facility consists of a $40 million five-year revolver, a $200 million six-year first-lien term loan and an $80 million seven-year second-lien term loan, the source said.

Proceeds will be used to refinance existing debt.

Mitel is a Kanata, Ontario-based provider of business communications and collaboration software and services.

SRS on deck

SRS Distribution set a bank meeting for 10:30 a.m. ET in New York on Wednesday to launch a $320 million credit facility that is being led by UBS Securities LLC and Barclays, according to a market source.

The facility consists of a $100 million five-year ABL revolver and a $220 million 61/2-year term loan B, the source said.

Proceeds, along with $100 million of mezzanine debt, will fund the buyout of the company by Berkshire Partners from AEA Investors.

SRS is a McKinney, Texas-based roofing distributor.

Dematic repricing

Dematic plans to hold a call at 1 p.m. ET on Monday to launch a repricing of its $540 million term loan B from Libor plus 400 bps with a 1.25% Libor floor, according to a market source.

Price talk on the transaction is not yet available, the source said.

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC is the left lead on the deal.

Dematic is an engineering company that provides intelligent warehouse logistics and materials handling solutions.

NRG closes

In other news, NRG Energy Inc. said in a news release that it completed the repricing of its $1.58 billion term loan B to Libor plus 250 bps with a 0.75% Libor floor from Libor plus 300 bps with a 1% Libor floor.

The repriced loan was issued at par and has 101 soft call protection for one year.

During syndication, the Libor floor was reduced from an initially proposed amount of 1%.

Citigroup Global Markets Inc. led the deal.

NRG Energy is a wholesale power generation company with headquarters in Princeton, N.J., and Houston.

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