Worldspan breaks in mid-par area; Select Medical cuts B spread; Consol gets good size orders

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, Feb. 14 - Worldspan LP freed up its new deal for trading on Monday, with the institutional tranche changing hands in the mid-par context. Meanwhile on the primary front, Select Medical Corp. reverse flexed its term loan B and Consol Energy Inc.'s recently launched revolver was nearly half done by Monday morning as a handful of banks threw in some relatively large commitments.

Worldspan's $450 million five-year term loan wrapped its way around the mid-par area during its first day of trading with the paper quoted at par ¼ bid, par ¾ offered, according to market sources.

The tranche, which was upsized by $50 million after the company downsized its bond deal by $50 million, is priced with an interest rate of Libor plus 275 basis points. Original price talk on the deal was Libor plus 250 basis points but it was flexed higher after the downsized bond deal priced wide of talk and the loan was increased in size.

The $300 million floating-rate notes offering priced last week at par to yield Libor plus 625 basis points, higher than the expected Libor plus 575 to 600 basis points price talk range.

Worldspan's $490 million senior credit facility (B2/B) also contains a $40 million five-year revolver with an interest rate of Libor plus 250 basis points.

JPMorgan and UBS are joint bookrunners on the deal, with JPMorgan left lead, and Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank Securities and Goldman Sachs & Co are all agents as well.

Proceeds from the facility, along with proceeds from the notes offering, will be used to help fund the tender offer for the company's 9 5/8% senior notes, refinance existing bank debt, redeem preferred stock issued by parent company Worldspan Technologies Inc. and prepay and terminate sponsor advisory fees and dividends on Worldspan Technologies class B common stock.

Any remaining proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

Worldspan is an Atlanta operator of computerized reservation systems.

Select Medical trims pricing

Select Medical reverse flexed its $580 million seven-year term loan B to Libor plus 175 basis points from Libor plus 225 basis points, according to a market source.

Pricing on the $300 million six-year revolver was left at Libor plus 250 basis points, the source added. The revolver has a commitment fee of 50 basis points.

JPMorgan and Wachovia are joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners on the $880 million senior secured credit facility (B1/BB-), JPMorgan Chase Bank is administrative agent and collateral agent, Wachovia Bank is syndication agent, and Merrill Lynch Capital Corp. is documentation agent.

Proceeds from the term loan, in combination with up to $200 million in revolver borrowings, equity contributions and senior subordinated notes, will be used to fund EGL Holding Corp.'s approximately $2.3 billion acquisition of Select Medical, to repay the existing credit facility and to repurchase existing subordinated notes tendered.

EGL is a new company formed by an investment group led by Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe for the Select Medical acquisition.

Select Medical is a Mechanicsburg, Pa., operator of specialty hospitals.

Consol filling up

Consol Energy has gotten a number of nice sized commitments for its in-market $600 million revolving credit facility that just launched via a bank meeting on Friday, according to a market source.

Scotia committed $60 million to the deal, Union Bank of California committed $50 million and Bank of America committed $50 million "for league table credit", the source said.

LaSalle Bank and BNP Paribas each committed $50 million towards the revolver as well, the source added.

And this $260 million of orders that were amassed by Monday morning, way ahead of the Feb. 28 deadline, does not take into account commitments from lead banks, PNC Bank and Citigroup.

Opening pricing on the revolver is Libor plus 175 basis points.

Proceeds will be used to replace the company's existing credit facility that closed this past summer, which consists of a $400 million five-year revolver with an initial interest rate of Libor plus 300 basis points and a $200 million six-year tranche B credit-linked deposit facility with an initial interest rate of Libor plus 250 basis points.

At close, the new facility will be half utilized with letters of credit.

Currently, the company's existing bank debt is rated at Ba2/BB, but there is potential for an upgrade because of improved performance and strong collateral coverage, a market source previously explained.

Consol is a Pittsburgh multi-fuel energy producer and energy services provider.

Enterprise NewsMedia closes

Enterprise NewsMedia LLC, which is owned by Heritage Partners Inc., closed on its $100 million credit facility consisting of a $25 million six-year revolver with an interest rate of Libor plus 300 basis points and a $75 million 7 1/2-year term loan B with an interest rate of Libor plus 325 basis points.

Wachovia was the lead bank on the recapitalization deal that is being used to refinance existing debt, provide a dividend to existing shareholders, fund the acquisitions of The Call Group and The Norwood Bulletin, and provide ongoing growth capital for the business.

"The recent financial performance of Enterprise coupled with the strong investor appetite for the refinancing allowed us to return capital to our Limited Partners while providing additional funding for the business to take advantage of a number of strategic alternatives, the recent acquisitions being just two of them," said Michael F. Gilligan, a general partner at Heritage, in a news release.

Enterprise NewsMediais a Quincy, Mass., owner and operator of community newspapers located in the South of Boston region.

DynCorp closes

Veritas Capital completed its $850 million acquisition of DynCorp International LLC from Computer Sciences Corp., according to a company news release.

To help fund the acquisition DynCorp got a new $420 million credit facility (B2/B+) consisting of a $75 million revolver with an interest rate of Libor plus 250 basis points and a $345 million term loan B with an interest rate of Libor plus 275 basis points.

Pricing on the term loan B came at the high end of original price talk that was set at Libor plus 250 to 275 basis points.

Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns were the lead banks on the deal, with Goldman left lead.

DynCorp is a Fort Worth, Texas, provider of mission critical support to its customers, primarily the U.S. government.

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