Banks Gear Up to Refinance Record Breaking Adevinta Unitranche Ahead of Call Protection Expiry in March

Reporting: Maryna Irkliyenko, Oscar Laurikka

Banks are pitching Permira and Blackstone to refinance Europe’s largest-ever unitranche arranged in 2023 to support their take-private of Norwegian classifieds business Adevinta, sources told Octus, formerly Reorg.

The banks are aiming to launch syndication in late January 2025 for the deal to allocate in February, ahead of the unitranche call protection’s expiry in March, the sources added.

The private equity owners of Adevinta have yet to mandate banks for the prospective refinancing, the sources said.

Direct lenders will likely offer a margin reduction to try to hold on to the deal, although many expect the deal to end up with banks, sources said.

The €4.5 billion cov-lite unitranche carries a margin of Euribor+575 bps and was provided by a consortium comprising Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Blackstone Credit, GIC, Intermediate Capital Group, Arcmont, Sixth Street, Goldman Sachs, PSP, Apollo, Blue Owl, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Oaktree and Oak Hill, as reported. T. Rowe Price and HPS also hold the debt, according to Octus’ BDC database.

At the time of the delisting, Adevinta’s EBITDA was reported at €650 million. Opening net leverage on the €4.5 billion unitranche was around 5.4x based on the structuring EBITDA used by the lenders, sources said.

Trade press previously speculated that a breakup and selloff of Adevinta’s assets would be the most viable strategy for the sponsors. In November, Adevinta sold its Irish online classifieds business Distilled, which operates property listing website Daft.ie, to Blacksheep Fund Management for more than €500 million, according to the deal announcement. Any refinancing transaction could be complicated and/or delayed depending on the scope and timing of any additional divestments, the sources added.

Permira and Blackstone declined to comment.

Disclosure: Octus and Adevinta are both Permira portfolio companies.