A&O has advised 3i and its portfolio company, Action, in connection with its debut US dollar term loan issuance, raising $1.5bn. The loan has been fully hedged back to the euro, with 70% of the debt fixed at an all-in cost of 6.3%.
The A&O team in London was led by leveraged finance partner Neil Sinha and senior associate James Green, together with associates Fraser Jackson, Daniel McCarron and trainee Iris Best.
The New York team was led by leveraged finance partner Gordon Mak together with associates Catalina Beccar Varela, Violet Jia and paralegal Amanda Tyson.
The Amsterdam team was led by finance partner Andrew Thomas and senior associate Luke Whibley, with support from paralegal Leon Zebeda.
The hedging team was led by London derivatives partner Parya Badie and senior associate Robert Simmons together with associate James Dempsey and trainee I-Zac Lee.
This transaction illustrates the strength of A&O’s transatlantic leveraged finance offering and follows on from A&O acting for 3i and Action on Action’s A&E and additional debt raise earlier in the year, resulting in total euro senior debt facilities of €3.625bn.
Action is the fastest growing non-food discounter in Europe, operating 2,263 stores across 10 countries at the end of its 2022 financial year. Action’s net sales in the nine months ending on 1 October 2023 (P9) grew to €7.9 billion (nine months ended P9 2022: €6.1 billion) and like-for-like (LFL) sales growth was very strong at 19.2%, driven primarily by higher customer footfall. Last 12 months’ (LTM) operating EBITDA to the end of P9 was €1,530 million (LTM P9 2022: €1,036 million), representing a 48% increase over the same period last year. Trading momentum has remained strong at Action, with LFL sales growth in P10 (2 October to 29 October 2023) of 13.4% (P10 2022: 12.0%). In the ten months ending 29 October 2023, net sales and operating EBITDA were 30% and 43% ahead of last year, and LFL sales growth over the same period was 18.5%.
