Mining equipment hire business National Group’s founder and CEO Mark Ackroyd has a few plates spinning. There’s a $250 million debt refinancing that needs to be bedded down by August end, and Jefferies’ bankers are bracing to open the data room for a sale process this month.Now, Street Talk can reveal National Group is also the subject of market testings for a US dollar high-yield bond issue.
Sources say a handful of Wall Street banks – Jefferies not included – have been gauging appetite for National Group to print a deal of this ilk. While deliberations are at an early stage, it shows National Group and its hefty debt load are ripe for dealmaking. Sources say to issue a high-yield bond, National Group would have to be vetted by credit rating agencies – although investment banks would have a rough idea on where it could land on S&P or Moody’s scales. Of note, when contacted by this column, Ackroyd said he hadn’t ordered a high-yield bond or even initiated a credit rating proces