RLPC-Lion Capital gets 730 mln stg FoodVest loan

LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - British private equity firm Lion Capital's 1.1 billion pound ($2.21 billion) buyout of CapVest's frozen food manufacturer The FoodVest Group is backed with a 730 million pound syndicated loan, a banking source said on Tuesday.

JP Morgan has solely underwritten the financing.

The loan is split between 550 million pounds of senior debt, including a 60 million pound revolving credit facility, and a 180 million pound mezzanine facility.

The banking source said the deal should be seen as a deleveraging event, as leverage under the new financing stands at just under 3.9 times senior and 5.3 times total, as compared to 4.6 times senior and 6.6 times total on FoodVest's current debt financing.

The deal has already attracted a lot of interest from existing lenders keen to roll into the new financing on higher pricing and lower leverage levels.

The banking source said the loan may be launched to a senior phase ahead of a wider syndication after the summer. (Reporting by Alasdair Reilly; Editing by Paul Bolding)