Part of a $3.85 billion long-anticipated debt financing backing US-based food business Darling International's acquisition of Dutch meat producer Vion's ingredients unit is to launch for syndication, banking sources said on Wednesday.
Bank meetings are due to take place in London on December 4 and New York on December 5 to showcase the deal, which debt investors have been eager to buy a following a lack of M&A activity this year.
In September, Darling won a competitive auction to buy the Vion unit from Dutch agricultural and horticultural association ZLTO for 1.6 billion euros ($2.17 billion).
The loan includes a $1 billion revolver and a $350 million term loan A led by JP Morgan and BMO, as well as a $1.2 billion term loan B, led by JP Morgan, BMO and Goldman Sachs.
The $1.2 billion term loan B will be equally split between dollars and euros to tap investor liquidity from both the US and European leveraged loan markets, banking sources said.
Pricing of the loans is expected to emerge in the coming days and the term loans will allocate before year end, the sources added.
The financing also includes a $1.3 billion senior unsecured bridge loan, provided by JP Morgan, BMO and Goldman Sachs.
Darling recycles beef, poultry and pork by-product streams into useable ingredients such as tallow, feed-grade fats, meat and bone meal, poultry meal and hides. VION Ingredients is headquartered in the Netherlands and employs 6,000 staff. It produces gelatin, proteins and fats from slaughterhouse byproducts which are then sold to the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food, feed, energy and technology sectors.
