REG - Cordiant Digital Inf - CRA refinances long-term senior credit facilities

Cordiant Digital InfrastructureAnnouncement

07/08/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 4420Z  Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Ltd  07 August 2024

7 August 2024

LEI: 213800T8RBBWZQ7FTF84

 

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited

CRA refinances long-term senior credit facilities

 

Refinance completes the terming out of CORD's debt: no refinances required
until June 2029

 

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited ("CORD"), the operationally focused,
specialist digital infrastructure investor, is pleased to announce a long-term
refinancing of senior credit facilities at its portfolio company, České
Radiokomunikace a.s. ("CRA"), with a syndicate of leading international and
local banks, securing CZK 5.0 billion (c. £167 million equivalent) of senior
financing, maturing in August 2030.

 

The new facilities include a term loan of CZK 3.9 billion (£130 million) and
undrawn revolving credit facilities of CZK 1.1 billion (£37 million). The
lending consortium comprises Citi, ING, Société Générale(1),
Raiffeisenbank(2), Erste Group(3) and PKO Bank Polski. CRA's pro forma net
leverage ratio(4) following this refinancing remains under 3.0x.

 

The new facilities benefit from a bullet repayment structure and have an
opening credit margin of 2.00% over PRIBOR, with the ability to reduce to
1.75% depending on net leverage. Following the refinancing, 86% of CRA's term
debt remains hedged through an interest swap executed in 2020 and maturing in
March 2025, meaning that the effective all-in interest rate on the hedged
portion of the term loan is 2.76%. Closing of the new facilities remains
subject to the satisfaction of a small number of administrative conditions
precedent and is expected to occur shortly.

 

The new term loan facility of CZK 3.9 billion will be used to repay CRA's
existing term loan of the same amount, put in place in 2020. The revolving
credit facilities are available to fund new investments in digital
infrastructure by CRA in the Czech Republic and other strategic markets in the
form of growth capital expenditure and bolt-on acquisitions, intended to
augment CRA's cash generating capacity and support reduction of net debt over
time.

 

Following the conclusion of this refinancing, CORD and its portfolio companies
have no third-party debt with a term that matures before June 2029. In the
last eighteen months, CORD has successfully refinanced and significantly
extended the tenors of major debt facilities totalling over £500 million at
Emitel, CRA and at the holding company level, representing prudent balance
sheet and risk management.

 

On a pro forma basis to the figures disclosed in CORD's annual report and
audited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024, following the
CRA refinancing and on the basis that the new revolving credit facilities
remain undrawn, CORD's leverage, measured as net debt divided by EBITDA,
remains at 4.5x(5) and, as measured by net debt divided by gross assets,
remains at 38.9%(6).

 

The Company's total available liquidity disclosed as at 31 March 2024, pro
forma for CRA's undrawn revolving credit facilities and the undrawn capex and
RCF facilities announced on 1 July as part of the fund-level Eurobond
refinancing, would have increased to £328 million.

 

Steven Marshall, Chairman of Cordiant Digital Infrastructure, said:

 

"Following the recent successful completion of CORD's long-term refinancing,
we are delighted with the support and recognition CRA has received through
this debt raise from leading international and local banks. CRA is a national
champion in the Czech Republic with a strong management team and is continuing
to perform well. We look forward to working with the company and this group of
banks to expand the CRA business in line with CORD's Buy, Build & Grow
model. More broadly, we are pleased that our portfolio companies have robust
balance sheets with no near-term debt maturities as they look to deliver on
their growth ambitions."

 

(1) Through its Czech subsidiary Komerční banka

(2) Partly through its Slovakian subsidiary Tatra banka

(3) Through its Czech subsidiary Česká spořitelna

(4) Measured as net debt divided by EBITDA for the year to 31 March 2024

(5) Measured as net debt divided by EBITDA for the year to 31 March 2024

(6) Measured as net debt divided by gross assets as at 31 March 2024

 

 

For further information, please visit www.cordiantdigitaltrust.com
(http://www.cordiantdigitaltrust.com) or contact:

 Cordiant Capital Inc.                                    +44 (0) 20 7201 7546

 Investment Manager

Stephen Foss, Managing Director
 Aztec                                                    +44 (0) 1481 749700

 Company Secretary and Administrator

 Chris Copperwaite / Laura Dunning
 Investec Bank plc                                        +44 (0) 20 7597 4000

 Joint Corporate Broker

 Tom Skinner (Corporate Broking)

 Lucy Lewis / Denis Flanagan (Corporate Finance)
 Jefferies International Limited                          +44 (0) 20 7029 8000

 Joint Corporate Broker

 Stuart Klein / Gaudi Le Roux
 Celicourt                                                +44 (0) 20 7770 6424

 PR Adviser

Philip Dennis / Ali AlQahtani / Charles Denley-Myerson

 

Notes to Editors:

About the Company

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Limited (the "Company") primarily invests in
the core infrastructure of the digital economy - data centres, fibre-optic
networks and telecommunication and broadcast towers - in Europe and North
America. Further details about the Company can be found on its website
at www.cordiantdigitaltrust.com (http://www.cordiantdigitaltrust.com/) .

 

The Company is a sector-focused specialist owner and operator of Digital
Infrastructure, listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CORD.
In total, the Company has successfully raised £795 million in equity, along
with a debt package that includes a €200m Eurobond with a consortium of
blue-chip institutions; deploying the proceeds into five acquisitions: CRA,
Hudson, Emitel, Speed Fibre and Norkring, which together offer stable, often
index-linked income, and the opportunity for growth, in line with the
Company's Buy, Build & Grow model.

 

About CRA

CRA is a diversified digital infrastructure company operating mobile towers,
broadcast networks, data centres, a fibre network and "Internet of Things"
networks. The company has a history of offering superior customer service,
increasingly through integrated solutions spanning the spectrum of digital
infrastructure. In January 2024, CRA completed the acquisition of Cloud4com, a
leading cloud services

provider in the Czech Republic and DC Lužice, a Tier III data centre facility
strategically located in the "digital Danube" triangle, that is centred on
Brno-Vienna-Bratislava.

About the Investment Manager

Cordiant Capital Inc ("Cordiant") is a specialist global infrastructure and
real assets manager with a sector-led approach to providing growth capital
solutions to promising mid-sized companies in Europe, North America and
selected global markets. Since the firm's relaunch in 2016, Cordiant, a
partner-owned and partner-run firm, has developed a track record of exceeding
mandated investment targets for its clients.

 

Cordiant focuses on the next generation of infrastructure and real assets:
sectors (digital infrastructure, energy transition infrastructure and the
agriculture value chain) characterised by growth tailwinds and technological
dynamism. It also applies a strong sustainability and ESG overlay to its
investment activities.

 

With a mix of managed funds offering both value-add and core strategies in
equity and direct lending, Cordiant's sector investment teams (combining
experienced industry executives with traditional private capital investors)
work with investee companies to develop innovative, tailored financing
solutions backed by a comprehensive understanding of the sector and
demonstrated operating capabilities. In this way, Cordiant aims to provide
value to investors seeking to complement existing infrastructure equity and
infrastructure debt allocations.

 

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