Church’s Chicken has closed a new asset-backed securitization, comprised of $220 million of senior secured notes, which have a maturity date of February 2018, and $25 million in senior secured revolving notes.
The new credit facility is the first whole-business securitization completed in the restaurant sector since 2007 and attracted significant demand from institutional investors.
Proceeds from the securitization were used to repay the outstanding balance of the existing credit facilities, to pay related fees and expenses, and to pay a dividend to shareholders.
Church’s Chicken is majority-owned by Friedman Fleischer & Lowe, a private equity firm based in San Francisco.
“Church’s Chicken enjoys great brand recognition and promising long-term growth prospects. We are pleased that we have been able to leverage these strengths to put a more efficient capital structure in place,” said Rajat Duggal, managing director at Friedman Fleischer & Lowe.
The securitization was arranged by Barclays Capital who acted as sole structuring advisor and sole bookrunning manager.
