One of the largest loans in India, Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA) has just raised $350m. It was through unitranche financing for its leveraged buyout of specialist business outsourcing firm IGT (Integrated Ground Test) Solutions, said IFR Asia. There were six-year bullet financing sponsors lenders on the transaction. They are Barclays, Canada Pension Plan, Investment Board, KKR Credit, Nomura, Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System and the Hong Kong-based Tor Investment Management.
The target of the limited sell-down for the financing would be few institutional investors. In the prediction, they could carry a leverage multiple of slightly over 6x and all-in pricing 650bp. This proceeds would fund BPEA’s LBO of IGT. Initially it was famously known as InterGlobe Technologies for around $800m. The expectation of the LBO is around a few months.
BPEA buys IGT from Aion Capital Partners. Before the company was the affiliation of Apollo Global Management. Previously, Aion acquired IGT from InterGlobe Enterprises. It was the owner of India’s IndiGo Airlines, in 2019. Aion Funded the LBO with a five-year term loan of $100m. It was with the leverage multiple of 2.5x-3.0x.
The aforementioned leverage multiple on IGT’s borrowing is near the levels of unitranches transaction in India last year. However, the borrowing cap is larger. In July last year, KKR raised a $165m unitranche with leverage of 5.5x-6.0x. It was to fund its buyout of Vini Cosmetics.
Advent International on the other hand, raised $100, lower than KKR. It was with the gearing of 6x for the acquisition of a controlling stake in Zandu Chemicals. Last year, BPEA completed $500m unitranche for its LBO of BPO company Straive. It was the largest loan from Asia outside of Japan and Australasia.