Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford Complete $500 Million Financing Deal

Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford Limited (CGSC), the global wholesale insurance and reinsurance broker, has announced the successful completion of a $500 million financing exercise from US based investors. The debt repayment terms have been extended from 2014 to 2020.

CGSC Group CFO, Phil Rock, said: “In the first four months of 2013 we have completed a $190 million equity transaction and have now finalized our $500 million debt financing, which was extremely well received by investors. The ‘covenant-lite’ nature of the new debt deal means that we retain great flexibility moving forward across our group, having removed the cross-border constraints of our previous terms by lifting the debt to the CGSC level.

“After the equity deal with Lightyear Capital and co-investors, we are carrying significant cash balances and we are in a very comfortable net leverage position of c. 4.2x ebitda, with the business producing strong free cash flows.”

CGSC Group CEO, Toby Esser added: “I am delighted we have completed such a successful financing exercise. It’s been a very busy period and I extend my thanks to the CGSC team and group companies who worked so tirelessly on this process. We are very happy with the overall execution. Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc., JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Canada, Wells Fargo and National Australia Bank assisted the company with the execution of the credit facilities.

“With more than $100 million surplus cash on our balance sheet, the $75 million revolving facility we have secured here, as well as further debt and equity we have available, we have in excess of $300 million of financial resources ready to invest in our business.

“We will do so carefully as we have always done, but we are entering an exciting phase of our development and I expect to see strong growth over the next few years.”

Source: Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford