S&P rates Global Blue B, loan B+

S&P said it assigned a B issuer rating to Global Blue Group Holding and preliminarily rated its planned €650 million senior secured term-loan B+ with a 3 recovery rating. The company also plans to secure a €100 million revolving credit facility.

The agency concurrently placed the ratings on CreditWatch with positive implications.

“Global Blue, a leading tax free-refund and payments services business, is planning to refinance its capital structure maturing in August 2025. As the global leader in tourist VAT refund processing, Global Blue has a market share of over 70% of the third-party serviced market. The group has a strong franchise network, providing technology and services at over 300,000 points of sale covering over 50 countries. Its operating performance depends on the trends in the tourism industry and luxury shopping in particular and is currently recovering strongly after being hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic,” S&P said in a press release.

Global Blue will use the proceeds to redeem the €99 million on its revolver and the €630 million term loan and repay the €61 million shareholder liquidity facility.

“As a result, the company's financial debt will increase only modestly, and we expect adjusted debt to EBITDA at the end of FY2024 will be about 5.7x in, subsequently reducing to about 4x in FY2025-FY2026,” S&P said in a press release.

The positive watch reflects the position that if Global Blue completes the refinancing under the expected terms, an upgrade is likely, the agency explained.

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