Swissport receives $100m partial loan repayment from HNA parent
08 / 05 / 2018
Swissport has received a further $100m (€83m) repayment on the ground handler’s affiliate loan to its parent company, China’s HNA Group, and has agreed to a "temporary remedies standstill period" of five months in collecting the balance.
The repayment is in partial satisfaction of HNA Group’s obligations under an outstanding affiliate loan of €360m owed to Swissport which was due for repayment in full yesterday (May 7, 2018).
In January this year, Swissport received a €52m partial repayment on the affiliate loan from HNA Group.
Swissport has agreed to "forbear for a period of five months from exercising remedies to collect the remaining balance under the affiliate loan". Swissport continues to earn a market interest rate on the residual amount.
Swissport, which early last month (April) deferred its plans for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on SIX Swiss Exchange, has received a forbearance fee of €150,000, included in the $100m payment.
Swissport said in a statement today that it will use funds from the repayment to prepay a portion of its own, existing term-loans, "reducing its net debt position and significantly improving its leverage ratio".
Added Swissport: "With this repayment, the outstanding balance of the affiliate loan will be reduced to approximately €286m."
Swissport is applying funds from the repayment by HNA Group to prepay a rateable portion of its existing term-loans, including a portion of the term-loans that were used to partially finance the acquisition of Australian ground handling company Aerocare.
The Aerocare acquisition was successfully completed in March this year, strengthening Swissport’s market position, especially in Asia Pacific, where it sees "attractive prospects".
Christian Goeseke, group chief financial officer for Swissport International, said: “In line with our medium-term financial plan and just two months after successfully completing our strategic acquisition of Aerocare, we can make a first prepayment on Swissport’s existing term-loans. This significantly reduces our net debt”.
With the partial repayment from HNA Group, Swissport’s pro forma total net leverage will improve to roughly 5.04x from 5.37x as of the end of March 2018.
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