FINANCE: London & Regional is restructuring the Lloyds Banking Group debt held against its legacy Next Generation Club portfolio.
The Livingstone brothers are in talks with M&G Investments over a new loan of up to £150m and are also looking to sell two of the health and fitness clubs.
The origination is being handled by former Morgan Stanley banker Lynn Gilbert, who joined M&G in October last year as head of origination.
She works across the business’s £1.4bn mezzanine and stretched senior vehicles, and its senior debt segregated accounts.
A new facility is expected to include a senior and mezzanine tranche to give it a LTV ratio of up to 75%.
London & Regional is also looking for a buyer for the High Wycombe and Ipswich clubs. It is looking for around £13m to £14m for each of the assets.
One source close to the process said: “Lloyds has a broad and complex relationship with L&R and there are a lot of moving pieces.”
L&R bought a portfolio of 13 Next Generation Clubs in 2006 for £198m. The following year it partnered with Bank of Scotland Corporate in the £925m acquisition of David Lloyd Leisure from Whitbread.
The partnership, which included both debt and equity participation from Lloyds, then rolled the two businesses together, creating an 88-strong European portfolio.
Last year Lloyds and L&R sold David Lloyd Leisure to private equity firm TDR Capital for £800m, but retained the Next Generation Club assets.
