Fnac Darty signed a €500 million credit agreement with Arkéa Banque, Bred, BNP Paribas, CIC, Crédit Agricole, La Banque Postale, LCL, Natixis and Société Générale. Crédit Agricole coordinated the transaction. Rothschild & Co and Bredin Prat acted as advisors to Fnac Darty. White and Case acted as advisor to the banking partners.
This loan, which is part of a term loan facility guaranteed by the French State, was implemented in the context of the COVID-19 crisis and is intended to secure Fnac Darty’s liquidity and prepare for the recovery of the company’s activities.
This loan will be guaranteed up to 70% by the French State and will have a maturity of one year, with a five-year extension option to April 2026.
“I welcome the conclusion of this €500 million state-guaranteed loan issued to the benefit of Fnac Darty, the first of its kind granted by the French State to a large French company,” Bruno Le Maire, French minister of economy and finance, said. “With more than €20 billion of loans granted to 150,000 companies so far, the deployment of state-guaranteed loans is now a reality for French companies, regardless of their size. The state-guaranteed loan is a major lever to help them get through this difficult economic period smoothly”
“I would like to thank the minister, his teams and his administration for their strong commitment to companies and for the quality of the measures implemented,” Enrique Martinez, CEO of Fnac Darty, said. “This operation also demonstrates the banks’ support for Fnac Darty’s business model. Once again, we have demonstrated our agility and capacity to adapt, which enabled us to execute a transaction within a very short time-frame and secure a long-term financing in an unprecedented market context.”
