American Traffic tightens talk; W.R. Grace upsizes; loan funds see modest Thursday inflow

By Paul A. Harris

Portland, Ore., Feb. 23 – In Friday's leveraged loan market American Traffic Solutions (ATS Consolidated Inc.) tightened price talk on its $1.04 billion in term loans.

W.R. Grace & Co. increased its seven-year first-lien term loans to $950 million from $900 million and tightened pricing.

And the daily fund flows of the dedicated bank loan funds were flat to slightly positive on Thursday, the most recent session for which data was available at press time, a trader said.

The loan funds saw $10 million of inflows on the day.

American Traffic tightens

American Traffic Solutions (ATS Consolidated Inc.) tightened price talk on its $1.04 billion in term loans.

The $840 million seven-year covenant-light first-lien term loan B is priced at Libor plus 375 basis points, tighter than talk for a coupon of Libor plus 400 bps to 425 bps.

The first-lien loan continues to have a 0% Libor floor and an original issue discount of 99.5.

Meanwhile the $200 million eight-year covenant-light second-lien term loan is priced at Libor plus 775 bps, tighter than talk for a rate of Libor plus 800 bps to 825 bps.

The 0% Libor floor and discount of 99 is unchanged on this tranche, the source said.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc., BMO Capital Markets Corp., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC are the lead arrangers on the deal.

Allocation was planned for Friday afternoon.

Proceeds will be used to finance the acquisition of Highway Tolling Administration and to refinance existing debt.

W.R. Grace upsizes

W.R. Grace & Co. increased its seven-year first-lien term loans to $950 million from $900 million and tightened pricing.

The facility now consists of a $350 million term loan B-1 and a $600 million term loan B-2. W.R. Grace added the additional funds from the upsizing to the B-1 loan.

Both tranches have identical terms, as before.

The coupon is now Libor plus 175 basis points, down from talk of Libor plus 200 bps to 225 bps.

In addition, the original issue discount was narrowed to 99.875 from 99.75 previously.

The loans continue to have a 0% Libor floor and an original issue discount of 99.75.

Recommitments were due Friday.

Goldman Sachs Bank USA is left lead on the deal and Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and JPMorgan are also lead arrangers.

Proceeds will be used to refinance existing debt and for mergers and acquisitions. Funds from the upsizing will be used for general corporate purposes.

EaglePicher shifts funds, tightens

EaglePicher Technologies LLC shifted funds between the tranches of its new term loans and set pricing tighter than talk.

The seven-year first-lien term loan was increased to $425 million from $405 million originally, and pricing was set at Libor plus 325 basis points, the tight end of talk for a coupon of Libor plus 325 bps to 350 bps.

The 25 bps leveraged-based step-down was retained.

The original issue discount was narrowed to 99.75 from 99.5 originally.

As before, the first-lien loan has a 0% Libor floor.

The eight-year second-lien term loan was correspondingly reduced to $140 million from $160 million.

Pricing was finalized at Libor plus 725 bps, in line with talk, and an original issue discount of 99.25, tighter than talk for a level of 99.

The 0% Libor floor is unchanged.

As previously, the first-lien loan includes 101 soft call protection for six months, and the second-lien term loan has hard call protection of 102 in year one and 101 in year two.

Jefferies LLC, Barclays and RBC Capital Markets are the arrangers on the deal.

The deadline for orders remained at Feb. 23.

Proceeds will be used to help fund the buyout of the company by GTCR from Apollo Global Management LLC.

Boyd finalizes at Libor plus 350 bps

Boyd Corp. finalized pricing on its $210 million non-fungible term loan at Libor plus 350 basis points, tightened from talk of Libor plus 375 bps.

Also, the original issue discount was revised to 99.75 from 99.5.

The term loan continues to have a 1% Libor floor.

As before, the term loan has 101 soft call protection until May 16 to coincide with the call protection on the company’s existing roughly $726 million term loan.

Antares Capital, SG Americas and Macquarie Capital are the joint lead arrangers on the deal.

DiversiTech completes add-on, repricing

DiversiTech Holdings Inc. priced its fungible $25 million add-on first-lien term loan and repricing of its existing first-lien term loan due June 2024 with a 300 basis points spread to Libor atop a 1% Libor floor at par.

The deal also reprices $323.4 million of term loan debt (B2/B+), decreasing the spread from Libor plus 350 bps.

The loan, now sized at $348.4 million including the $25 million add-on, features 101 soft call protection for six months, the source said.

RBC Capital Markets, Barclays, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Societe Generale are the joint lead arrangers and bookrunners on the deal (B2/B+).

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