EG Group to amend and extend banking loans

LONDON (Reuters) -EG Group, the petrol forecourt and retail company that last week sold its UK operations to supermarket Asda, will seek to amend and extend its banking loans, it said on Thursday.

EG and Asda, Britain's third-largest grocer, are both owned by brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa and private equity group TDR Capital.

"The group has already initiated a process with key relationship banks seeking both an extension of its RCF (revolving credit facility) and banking facilities, and has received good support in this process," EG said.

The three-year amend and extend applies to the remaining $3.4 billion of term loans due in 2025 and 2026, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

EG sold its UK and Ireland business to Asda for an enterprise value of 2.27 billion pounds ($2.84 billion). It will still trade in nine countries, including the United States, Australia and Germany.

The group said proceeds from the Asda deal, $1.4 billion from an earlier sale and leaseback transaction in the U.S., proceeds from another small U.S. non-core asset disposal and reduced capital expenditure will enable it to reduce net debt from $9.80 billion in March 2023 to $5.37 billion, reducing net leverage from 6.3 times to 4.9 times.

For the three months to March 31, EG's fiscal first quarter, it reported EBITDA of $228 million on a constant currency basis, on revenues of $7.2 billion, which it said was in line with management expectations.

EG said it had "a huge opportunity" to accelerate the rollout of electric vehicle (EV) charging across its network.

($1 = 0.7987 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Kylie MacLellan and Sharon Singleton)