IPO to pay down debt? (Ascential - ASCL)
Hello everyone, I'm working on an university assignment and I have to analyse Ascential's IPO in 2016 and explain the rationale of the deal. Usually, it is easy because most companies tend to use the raised funds to fund R&D, acquisitions, pay back only a small proportion of debt and provide an exit to PE investors or small stakeholders (e.g. regional directors owning 1%).
In Ascential's case, they raised about £183m after fees and they had negotiated new "credit facilities" aka loans which are cheaper. They used all of those funds + additional funds from cash( I think) which de-levered them. Fitch Ratings upgraded their credit rating after that.
The main owners were Apax (2/3) and Guardian Media Group (1/3). They, combined with directors, raised £80m from the IPO (total of approximately £183.20 + £80M). Apax and GMG had bought in for £1bn about 8 years ago and they are clearly at a loss and they still own the majority share.
My question is: how do I explain the rationale of the deal? What is behind the "we want to pay back our debt & get cheaper one". Should I just say that this would reduce costs therefore increase profits to result in a possible turnaround so Apax & GMG don't lose that much money?
I apologise if this is messy, I am a bit confused. I have a bunch of other questions and my assignment is due in 5 days. If you actually worked on the deal directly or indirectly please reach out to me.
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