Citi, UBS Line Up €2 Billion Debt for Bain’s Apleona Buy

(Bloomberg) — Citigroup Inc. and UBS Group AG are organizing about €2 billion ($2.1 billion) of funding to back Bain Capital’s acquisition of German facility-management company Apleona Group GmbH — a rare deal amid a dearth of acquisitions in recent years. 

The two banks are leading the leveraged loan financing, which is due to be sold to institutional investors via a syndication process next month, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the deal is private. Other banks could join the process shortly, one of the people said.

Spokespeople for Bain, UBS and Citi declined to comment. A representative of Apleona didn’t immediately return a request for comment. 

Credit investors have experienced large inflows over the last year as a global rally drives huge demand for leveraged loans, and they’re keen to find new deals. That, and the lack of M&A deals available, has seen private equity firms take advantage of the liquidity on offer to reprice the loans of their portfolio companies ever lower.

The Apleona deal is one of the few offerings for mergers and acquisitions in Europe’s leveraged finance market and is likely to see strong demand from investors. The firm is already a well-known issuer in the market, with over €1 billion of debt facilities, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

As well as giving cash-rich investors a chance to put their money to work, the deal potentially provides some of the most lucrative investment-banking fees available. 

Deal Scarcity  

The handful of offerings currently in the market and pending includes a €775 million loan backing the buyout of Dutch generic drugmaker Synthon International Holding BV, and around €700 million of debt to finance private equity firm H.I.G. Capital’s acquisition of Kantar Media.

The biggest deal on investors’ radars is an €8.65 billion loan-and-bond package backing Clayton Dubilier & Rice’s buyout of a part of Sanofi SA’s consumer arm, Opella. 

Still, that’s unlikely to come until the end of March at the earliest, about six months after the deal was underwritten, because the sponsor wants to wait until the company’s fourth-quarter financials are ready.

Bain’s intention of buying Apleona from PAI Partners was announced on Feb. 14. A deal for the company — which has more than 40,000 employees and sales of €4 billion — would see PAI join other buyout firms reviving their divestment plans amid a more positive dealmaking environment. 

The sale was temporarily shelved last year after initial bids came in lower than what PAI was seeking.

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