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Grocer C&S Kicks Off $400M Loan Sale to Acquire SpartanNash
Investors Have Until Aug. 5 to Submit Orders
C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. is looking to raise $400 million from a leveraged loan sale to help finance its $1.77 billion acquisition of food distributor SpartanNash Co.
A lender call for the five-year offering, which was first reported by Bloomberg earlier this month, kicked off at 11 a.m. on July 23. Investors have until Aug. 5 to submit orders for the deal, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified.
The deal is among a small number of loan sales tied to acquisitions that have hit the market this month. Aside from those, the market has been inundated with repricings, a type of deal that’s broadly unpopular with investors as the interest rates paid on the debt are lowered.
C&S ranks No. 9 and SpartanNash No. 8 on the Transport Topics list of top grocery carriers.
Proceeds from the C&S loan, along with a $2.25 billion five-year asset-based lending revolver and a $903 million cash contribution from owner Rick Cohen, will fund the SpartanNash acquisition, said the person.
Wells Fargo & Co. is leading the transaction, the person added. There are more than 50 loan offerings in circulation, according to Bloomberg-compiled data, and a significant number of them are slated to price in the next couple of days.
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
