MELBOURNE, May 8 (Reuters Basis Point) - Australian-listed
casino operator Crown Ltd (CWN.AX) has got a A$600 million
($566 million) equivalent five-year underwritten financing from
mandated lead arrangers ANZ, Bank of America, Commonwealth Bank
of Australia, Royal Bank of Scotland and Westpac Banking
Corporation, sources said.
The unsecured deal, for refinancing and additional
liquidity, divides into a A$ revolving credit facility and a
US$ term loan. Syndication will shortly launch to both existing
and new potential lenders.
Pricing will be benchmarked off Tatts Group Ltd (TTS.AX),
another gaming company that is in the market for a loan.
The opening margin on Tatt's A$1 billion maiden deal is 75
basis points (bp), 90bp and 105bp over BBSY for one-, three-
and five-year maturities, based on the company's net
debt-to-EBITDA leverage of 1.5 to two times.
The Crown deal, underwritten by its five leads, may price
at a slight premium to Tatts, which is not underwritten and is
being arranged on a best-effort basis.
Crown is currently rated BBB (stable), Baa1 (stable) and
BBBB (stable) by Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investor Services
and Fitch Ratings, respectively.
The company, with a market capitalisation of about A$7.4
billion, has gaming operations in Australia, Macau, North
America and the UK.
($1=A$1.06)
(Reporting by Sharon Klyne)
