Ropes & Gray Represents Bitė Finance on Refinancing of its Existing Debt

February 7, 2013
Ropes & Gray advised Bitė Finance International B.V. (“Bitė”) in connection with its offering of €200 million in aggregate principal amount of senior secured floating rate notes due 2018. Bitė’s operating subsidiaries provide mobile telecommunications services in Lithuania and Latvia. The proceeds of the high- yield offering were used to redeem all of Bitė's existing bonds, refinance its group credit facility and make a distribution to its parent to repay certain of its parent's outstanding indebtedness.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by London high-yield partner Jonathan Bloom, with support from associate Eric Issadore.

“The increased number of high-yield transactions throughout Europe and the periphery evidences the further acceptance of the high-yield product globally. High- yield provides companies with operational flexibility, and recent issuances by companies with operations in Israel, Lithuania and Latvia (amongst others) reflect a growing appreciation for high-yield outside of Western Europe,” said Jonathan Bloom.

Ropes & Gray advised Bitė on the high-yield offering and the related super senior revolving credit facility and security arrangements.

“With limited access to the senior bank market and cash continuing to flow into high- yield investment funds, we expect to see continued growth in the high-yield space. We expect the global acceptance of this product will support our already active pipeline of transactions,” noted Mr. Bloom.

After just over three years in London, Ropes & Gray has established itself as a leader in European high-yield financings and was ranked first by deal count and second by US$ value in the Bloomberg Euromarket High Yield (ex-EM) Issuer Legal Advisers table (Year-End 2012).