EQT’s cancer care provider Icon Group has become the first issuer to raise more than $1 billion in Australia’s Term Loan B leveraged loans market, thanks to support from the country’s big superannuation funds.
Icon Group has 45 cancer care centres globally and makes 80 per cent of its earnings in Australia, according to a pitch to potential buyers delivered last year. It’s a big development for Australia’s private credit market, coming after years of talk about the need to match the huge pile of domestic superannuation money with corporate borrowers. The superannuation funds, having built internal teams, are now turning up to the deals, joining the domestic and offshore credit funds who helped set up the $A TLB market and making $1 billion-plus raisings a reality.
And leverage on offer is said to be pretty good. Icon Group’s total leverage was said to be worth six to seven times EBITDA.