ISS seeks amendments to extend its debt maturities and further optimise its operational flexibility under the Senior Facilities Agreement

ISS A/S, one of the world’s leading facilities services companies, announced today that it is seeking the consent of its lenders under the Senior Facilities Agreement dated 28 March 2005 (as amended from time to time) (SFA) for an extension of certain tranches under the SFA and other amendments intended to increase the Company’s operational flexibility.

While ISS continues to monitor conditions in connection with a possible initial public offering, ISS wishes to proactively manage its medium term maturities and is therefore asking lenders to extend their commitments which currently mature in June 2012 (The Revolving Credit Facility and the Letter of Credit) to December 2014 and their 2013 commitments (Facility B and Acquisition B) to April 2015 by “rolling” into additional tranches.

In addition, ISS is seeking lender consent for a number of amendments to the SFA to increase its operational flexibility given that the group has almost doubled in size in terms of revenues, EBITDA and assets since the original agreement was put in place in 2005. Key terms of the proposed amendments include, among others, the increase of baskets under certain operational covenants, the ability to increase the Revolving Credit Facility, the reset of selected financial covenants to reflect the amendment and extension and the inclusion of the existing securitisation programme in the financial definitions, as well as increased flexibility to refinance existing debt in the bank or bond market.

ISS is proposing to offer consent fees and increased margins, details of which will be provided to the Senior Lenders.

Deutsche Bank and Nordea are acting as bookrunners on the amendment and extension process.

ISS has received support for the amendment and extension from its largest lenders.

Jakob Stausholm, ISS Group CFO, commented:

“While we already had committed long term financing in place for ISS, we have always demonstrated that we take prudent action to ensure appropriate maturity of our debt. Given the profile of our debt and the favourable debt markets, we felt the time to be right. Following these amendments we will have a capital structure, which better fits our current positive business development and provides ISS and its owners with maximum flexibility for the re-launch of the postponed IPO. The amendments will further support the positive momentum that ISS is currently experiencing with strong growth in both revenue and profit. Our revenue increased by 8% while operating profit was up 7% for Q1 2011 compared to last year.”

For lender enquiries
Barbara Plucnar Jensen, Head of Group Treasury, +45 38 17 62 60

For media enquiries
Kenth Kærhøg, Head of Group Communications, +45 38 17 62 05