Syndicated Loan Drop Drives Telefonica, Reed to ‘Forward’ Debt
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — The 45 percent decline in syndicated loans in Europe is leading companies to pay higher fees to lock in bank loans years before their current agreements expire.
Telefonica SA, Europe’s second-largest phone company, is offering a seven-fold increase in interest to banks now so it can access a 4 billion-euro ($5.1 billion) revolving credit in 2011. Marston’s Plc, a Wolverhampton, England-based pub owner, will pay 0.2 percentage point more in interest on a 295 million- pound ($420 million) facility than for the 400 million-pound credit line expiring in 2010, said James White, a London-based spokesman for the company.
“It’s a rather elegant solution to the liquidity constraints facing banks and companies,” said Nick Soper, head of the independent debt advisory group at London-based Investec Plc’s investment-banking division. Companies can keep their lenders in place “with the promise of upfront fees and higher margins,” he said.
