ASIA-PACIFIC

摘要

Credit Suisse and HSBC are jointly providing a 12-month bridge loan of US$600m to back BLUESCOPE STEEL'S US$720m acquisition of joint venture partner Cargill's 50% stake in the North Star mill in the US. Credit Suisse also advised BlueScope on the acquisition. About 50% of the bridge will be refinanced with a syndicated bank loan targeted at existing relationship banks, while the other 50% will be taken out in the US high-yield or term loan B markets. The acquisition price represents a Ebitda multiple of 7.1. Moody's and S&P have affirmed BlueScope's respective ratings of Ba3 and BB. The steel-maker said previously it planned to lower its debt to a net-debt-to-Ebitda ratio of 1.0 within 12-18 months with proceeds from the sale of assets, as well as operating cashflow.