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Tottenham Hotspur have started to spread the financial burden of their new stadium by refinancing more than £400 million of bank debt.
Spurs borrowed £637 million from Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and HSBC to pay for their £1 billion new stadium that opened in April. That bank facility was initially due to be paid back by April 2022.
But Bank of America has launched a new private placement scheme to turn roughly £400 million of that debt into bonds with staggered maturities ranging between 15 and 30 years. They reached out to institutional investors in the US with a conference call last week.
While this deal will not immediately decrease the level of Tottenham’s net debt, which is approaching £600 million, it will relieve the immediate pressure for Tottenham to pay the money back in less than three years’ time. The move also takes advantage of low interest rates in the US and puts the club’s finances on a stable long-term footing.
This arrangement follows up on a commitment that the club made in the financial update released in October 2018. That statement, which revealed the club had increased its bank facility from £400 million to £637 million, alluded to a re-financing programme this year.
“Working with our Banking Partners and our financial advisor, Rothschild & Co, we shall be converting this development facility, which currently expires in April 2022, into notes with a mixture of debt maturities,” Spurs said last year. “The residual amount of gross debt to be converted or extinguished will depend on a number of factors including several commercial discussions.”
Spurs’ arrangement has been compared to Manchester United’s May 2015 refinancing, when the Red Devils raised $425 million of bonds through a private placement scheme. Private placements are typically available to borrowers of a higher credit quality, and so both Tottenham and Manchester United benefited from having an investment grade rating. That has allowed them to borrow over a longer period of time, and at lower interest rates. In contrast, Italian sides Inter Milan and Roma have recently had to issue high yield bonds instead, with shorter maturities.
Tottenham Hotspur and Bank of America both declined to comment.
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