Listed debt collector Pioneer Credit has agreed terms to refinance its borrowings, with Challenger, Nomura and Sydney’s Revolution Asset Management set to pour $300 million into the business.
Street Talk can reveal the trio will replace Pioneer’s existing lender, New York’s Fortress Investment Group, which is owned by Mubadala Investment Company. Fortress will exit the ASX-listed business’s debt stack after 2½ years.
The deal was structured as a four-year facility, and is slated to close by June 30. Done at a lower interest rate than the Fortress facility, the refinancing is expected to save Pioneer Credit between $8 million to $12 million in annual borrowing costs. It comes after Pioneer Credit hired Nomura and law firm Lavan’s Perth partner Joseph Abberton to stitch up a deal earlier this year.
Of note, the deal size tops Pioneer Credit managing director Keith John’s expectation of a $220 million senior refinancing, and a separate $25 million facility to fund new purchased debt portfolios, as guided to shareholders on May 13.
Sources said Pioneer and Nomura had found enough demand to upsize the growth facility from $245 million to about $300 million.
Combined with a $10 million equity placement in March – done at a 7.1 per cent premium to the last close – Pioneer Credit should have a nice little stack of dry powder to fund acquisitions of purchased debt portfolios.
The equity raise saw Fred Woollard’s Samuel Terry Asset Management pop up above the substantial shareholding mark.
Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.
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