(Bloomberg) -- Banks including Barclays and Deutsche Bank are having to hold onto a chunk of financial technology firm FNZ Group Ltd’s $2.1 billion refinancing deal after failing to drum up enough interest to sell the whole loan onto investors.
Arranging banks adjusted its structure to swap the euro-denominated term loan B for a term loan A, according to people familiar with the matter, a safer category of debt that is easier for lenders to keep on their balance sheets. A term loan B is usually sold on to money managers.
Proceeds from the deal are set to repay FNZ’s £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) unitranche, a blend of senior and junior-ranked debt typically provided by direct lenders. HPS investment Partners, Arcmont Asset Management, Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Hayfin Capital Management financed that loan in 2021.
Banks have been going after private credit business since the beginning of the year, as falling interest rates encourage borrowers to refinance their expensive unitranche loans in the broadly syndicated market.
The arrangers on the FNZ deal had originally approached investors with the $2.1 billion-equivalent leveraged loan, split between a $950 million US dollar-denominated term loan B, a $650 million euro-equivalent TLB and a $500 million-equivalent sterling TLB. But lack of demand for the euro tranche saw the TLB upsized to $1.1 billion, the sterling portion increased to $525 million and the euro TLB switched to a TLA and downsized to $521 million.
In a further indication of its limited appeal, pricing ended up at the wide end of guidance for the dollar portion, and the sterling TLB had to be heavily discounted.
While banks have allocated the US dollar portion, the sterling and euro tranches have yet to land on screens.
Representatives for FNZ, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs AM and Hayfin declined to comment. Spokespeople for HPS and Arcmont didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Changing Tack
A number of banks recast risky term loan Bs as term loan As in order to mop up so-called hung deals that became commonplace in 2022 as interest rates soared. This time around, investors said the market is healthy, and classified FNZ’s struggles as credit-specific.
Some investors looking at the deal said they weren’t happy with the company’s aggressive adjustments of its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, as well as its lack of disclosure. Banks had to make tweaks to the deal’s documents before pricing, and extended the time for investors to make commitments, according to the people familiar, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Moody’s Ratings analysts wrote that the company was loss making in 2023 due to a “significant amount of investments,” including mergers and acquisitions, and reported a pre-tax loss of $565.4 million. Once adjusted for non-recurring growth investments, FNZ was still loss-making, according to Moody’s.
“FNZ has elevated leverage, a loss-making history and has grown at elevated levels in the last two to three years, creating a degree of operational risk, particularly in light of its complex legal structure,” the ratings agency’s analysts wrote in a report dated Oct. 14.
Wellington, New Zealand-based FNZ operates investment platforms for wealth management firms and manages $1.5 trillion in assets under administration, according to its website.
Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec (CDPQ), Generation Investment Management and Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd own a majority stake in FNZ. In 2022, the firm scored a $1.4 billion investment from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Motive Partners.
Spokespeople for CDPQ and Generation declined to comment. Representatives for Temasek, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Motive Partners didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.