Brightspeed starts roadshow for $1.87 billion secured notes backing Apollo’s Lumen acquisition

By Paul A. Harris

Portland, Ore., Sept. 19 – Marketing began on Monday for the Connect Holding II LLC $1.865 billion seven-year senior secured notes offering (B2//B+) backing the carve-out acquisition of Lumen Technologies’ fixed line assets by Apollo Global Management, according to market sources.

The broadband and telecom services provider will be rebranded as Brightspeed.

A global investor call is set for 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

Small group investor calls are set to run through Sept. 28.

The Rule 144A for life deal is scheduled to price late in the week of Sept. 26.

Initial price talk is 10%, according an investor.

Left bookrunner Barclays will bill and deliver. BofA Securities Inc., BNP Paribas Securities Corp., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, MUFG, BMO Capital Markets Corp., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., RBC Capital Markets LLC and Mizuho Securities USA Inc. are the joint bookrunners.

The notes come with three years of call protection. A special call provision allows the issuer to redeem 10% of the notes annually at 103. The notes also feature a 40% equity clawback at par plus the full coupon during the non-call period, as well as a 101% poison put.

Proceeds plus a new $1 billion term loan A and $2 billion term loan B will be used to support the Apollo acquisition, which includes the Lumen incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) assets and all associated operations across 20 states.

Brightspeed will establish headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.