GSO gets in on Bain’s buyout of Irish building materials biz

GSO Capital is providing Bain Capital with a £250 million ($391 million; €315 million) unitranche financing for its purchase of building materials assets from Irish firm CRH. The deal was first reported by Reuters earlier this week. GSO declined to comment.

This unitranche facility is one of the largest of its kind in the European loan market, banking sources told Reuters. Bain will also sign a £40 million five-year revolving credit facility, provided by Bank of Ireland and Lloyds, the Reuters sources added.

Boston-headquartered private equity firm Bain Capital will pay £414 million for CRH’s clay and concrete businesses in the UK and US. The private equity firm will take on certain debt and pension liabilities of the businesses and so the net cash payable to CRH will be around £295 million, according to a statement by CRH.

Bain is purchasing clay companies Ibstock in the UK and Glen Gery in the US, as well as UK concrete products companies Forticrete and Supreme Concrete. The assets produced profit before tax of £16 million in 2013. CRH will maintain control of other UK real estate assets valued at £30 million, continued the statement.

GSO, which is part of alternative investment firm Blackstone Group, is headquartered in New York and has offices in London and Dublin. The firm established its European presence in 2012 when one of its founders, Tripp Smith, relocated to London to build the business there. He had outlined the firm’s journey and expansion in PDI’s inaugural Capital Talk feature in March 2013. GSO now manages $70 billion in across a variety credit strategies and geographies.

Bain Capital has its own large credit and lending arm in Sankaty Advisors, which spun out from Bain in 1998 and now handles $24 billion.