Paddy Power Betfair parent to save €58m annually

Paddy Power Betfair parent Flutter has completed a debt re-financing transaction that will save it about £50 million (€58 million) per annum in interest, the company said on Monday.

The key components of the transaction, which is designed to reduce its effective cost of debt and provide it with additional liquidity, include a repricing and upsizing of the group’s existing Term Loan B facility by $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion).

The $3 billion component of the facility is priced at Libor +225 basis points (bps), 0 per cent floor, with an up-front fee to lenders of 25 bps.

The €500 million component of the facility is priced at Euribor +250 bps, 0 per cent floor, with an up-front fee to lenders of 50 bps.

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The deal also involves an imminent repayment of $1 billion of 7 per cent senior unsecured notes on July 21st, as well as a net increase in available liquidity of about £250 million for general corporate purposes.

The resultant pricing equates to 125 bps below existing margins across both US dollar and Euro components.

The group said it received strong support for the transaction with a material number of new lenders supporting over 25 per cent of the order book.

“As a result of the transaction, we estimate that the group’s weighted average cash cost of debt will fall from 4.2 per cent (at December 31st) to approximately 2.5 per cent,” the group said in a note to investors.

“Based on the group’s debt position at the end of 2020, this will equate to annualised interest savings of approximately £50 million per annum.”