Carlyle’s Accolade mulls restructuring plan, debt-for-equity swap
Finally, after a protracted recapitalisation process, there’s movement at Accolade Wines, the country’s second-largest wine group behind Treasury Wine Estates.
Street Talk can reveal existing lenders for The Carlyle Group-owned wine producer were on Wednesday night presented with a sweeping turnaround plan, under restructuring rules in the United Kingdom. Amphora Group, the company that wholly owns Accolade, is headquartered in London.
Accolade Wines is sitting on a mountain of debt, including a £301 million ($585 million) Term Loan B due in June 2025 and a $150 million revolving credit facility that matures in early June 2024, Bloomberg data shows. The TLB deal that is now under consideration would involve a large debt-for-equity swap and no new debt, sources said on Thursday.
House of Arras has been sold by private equity-owned Accolade Wines but the wine group is not yet out of the woods.
As Street Talk has previously reported, lenders include Bain, Intermediate Capital Group and Investcorp, while Accolade earlier this year drafted Rothschild & Co as it explored refinancing options for its debt. Citi led the original TLB financing; it’s also the second such deal to run into problems, the first being cancer care provider GenesisCare.
Financial accounts lodged by Amphora Group with the UK regulator show that it had a difficult 2022 – but remained earnings positive. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were crunched to $75 million from more than $100 million, after COVID-19 pandemic disruptions to the hospitality industry hit key markets in Australia and Britain.
It’s also battled supply chain woes, big freight cost increases and higher energy rates amid an oversupply of wine, partly caused by
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