Bavaria Yachtbau GmbH says Anchorage Advisors LLC and Oaktree Capital Management, which collectively control approximately 95% of Bavaria's €960m debt facilities, signed a binding agreement to restructure the company's balance sheet on Saturday October 3.
The company says the restructuring will create an industry leading balance sheet through a capital injection of €55m in cash and the write-down of over 90% of the senior and junior debt tranches.
Anchorage and Oaktree have been working collaboratively with Bain Capital and look forward to Bain's continued involvement once the deal - which is subject to regulatory and anti-trust clearance – has been finalised.
Both Anchorage and Oaktree have been lenders to Bavaria for over a year, and support the strategic plan developed by the management team and Bain. Upon completion of the transaction, says Bavaria, the company's new financial strength will enable it to accelerate new product launches, expand and strengthen its channels of distribution, while continuing to support its existing customers and distributors.
Under the ownership of Bain, the company says it developed a multitude of new sailing and motor yachts in close cooperation with Farr Yacht Design and BMW Group Designworks USA, which resulted in the Cruiser 32, which has recently been nominated Yacht of the Year 2009/10.
‘This announcement is a welcome development for Bavaria,’ said CEO Andrés Cárdenas. ‘We’re excited by the new products being launched this boat show season and our new financial strength provides stability for our customers and business partners.’
BB spoke to Mr Cárdenas yesterday and asked him how production had been affected under the the Bain regime. ‘We went up and down according to the orders,’ he told us. ‘We're still maintaining our eight to 10 boats a day and only produce to orders. We don’t produce for stock and push boats out into our deal network.’
Asked if there were redundancies planned as a cost cutting exercise, Mr Cárdenas told us there’s no need to lay off any of the workforce. ‘There is no discussion about this right now,’ he said.