Blast from the past: Chemicals business Ixom back with $1b refinancing

afr.com:

Six months after Singapore-listed Keppel Infrastructure Trust ditched the $2 billion sale of its Australia and New Zealand chemicals business Ixom, it’s back on the dealmaking circuit – this time with a trip to debt capital markets.

Street Talk can reveal Ixom has mandated Commonwealth Bank, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and United Overseas Bank to lead a $1 billion refinancing to help Keppel stay in as an owner of the company and to fund future growth.

Ixom is the market leader in water treatment and chemical distribution in Australia and New Zealand. Daniel Pockett

The trio, all existing lenders at Ixom, have scheduled lender presentations for Tuesday. Potential backers are being told to expect a deal split across three-year and five-year facilities at about four-times leverage.

CBA, in particular, knows Ixom well. It liked the asset enough to be the lender behind a $1 billion stapled debt package offered to bidders during last year’s JPMorgan-run auction. Given the choice of banks – OCBC and UOB are both headquartered in Singapore – the deal would be likely shown to Asian investors.

It’s also among the largest refinancing deals to cross Street Talk’s desk this year. TPG Telecom’s $2 billion refinancing and Brookfield’s $2.2 billion deal for HealthScope are the only others we’ve spotted over the billion-dollar mark. (Additionally, AirTrunk’s ongoing $4.76 billion loan included about $3.5 billion in refinancing).

Ixom is the country’s largest vertically integrated maker and supplier of water treatment products, which are critical to the supply of clean water and food. For history buffs, it is the old Orica chemicals division that was sold to Blackstone in 2014 and then to Keppel Infrastructure in 2018.

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