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Apax Partners completes refinancing of French Frans Bonhomme

Apax Partners has completed the refinancing of its investment in French buildings supplies distributor Frans Bonhomme 14 months after the initial €520m investment. It enables the repayment of approximately half the mezzanine and all the convertible bonds initially subscribed by the shareholders.

Frans Bonhomme distributes plastic pipes and fittings to the building industry. The group employs 1,800 people and realised consolidated sales of €474m in 2003.

Patrick de Giovanni, partner at Apax, said, 'The transaction was made possible by the impressive operational results obtained under the leadership of Michel Pic and his team. The evolution of the financial markets also allowed the use of an innovative structure for the French market, yielding a very attractive debt pricing for the company.'

Refinancings have become common place throughout the larger end of the buy-out market, where the availability of relatively cheap credit has enabled buy-out firms to restructure debt at the same time as paying themselves a special dividend.

Apax Partners operates in Europe, Israel, the USA and Japan, and manages €12bn on behalf of international institutional investors.

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