SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
FTSE gambling group GVC Holdings has this morning issued a market filing, confirming that it has gained access to a €200 million ‘class b’ first-lien term loan.
The € debt transaction has been processed through GVC’s operational subsidiary – ‘GVC Holdings Gibraltar Limited’.
In its market filing, GVC governance details that the loan has been structured under ‘net leverage neutral terms’, with the company undertaking the transaction to better align its debt capacity handling ‘the evolving currency mix of the business post the UK’s Triennial Review’ judgement.
Once secured, GVC will utilise proceeds from the transaction to repay an existing £275 million first-lien term loan transaction sanctioned on March 2017, of which the FTSE firm reports that £175 million remains outstanding.
Publishing its H1 2019 interim results this August, GVC Holdings maintains its corporate debt at £1.9 billion, representing a debt leverage ratio of 2.6X held over a year to date basis.
In its H1 2019 trading update, GVC informs that its corporate debt ratio will increase to 2.9x by the end of 2019 trading, as the company absorbs further Triennial Review impacts.
GVC has reduced the firm’s debt leverage by approximately 0.5% per annum in subsequent years, underlining that the “highly cash generative nature of the business supports a commitment to double-digit annual dividend growth, and gives us the financial flexibility to pay down debt, or continue to grow the business through M&A”.
