Crown Castle International announced that its direct wholly owned subsidiary, Crown Castle Operating Company (CCOC), borrowed $700 million, consisting of $500 million of incremental tranche B-2 term loans and $200 million of incremental tranche A term loans under CCOC’s existing senior-secured credit agreement. Further, CCOC extended the maturity date of each of its $1.5 billion senior-secured revolving credit facility and its senior-secured term loan A facility to November 1, 2018 (or, upon the satisfaction of certain events, January 31, 2019) and reduced the interest at a per annum rate under the revolver and tranche A term loans to LIBOR plus 1.50% to 2.25%, based on CCOC’s total net leverage ratio.
The incremental term loans were arranged by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith; RBS Securities and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding.
The terms of the incremental tranche B-2 term loans are substantially the same as the terms of CCOC’s outstanding tranche B term loans under the CCOC credit facility and will mature on January 31, 2021. The incremental tranche B-2 term loans bear interest at a per annum rate equal to LIBOR plus 2.25% to 2.50%, based on CCOC’s total net leverage ratio. The terms of the incremental tranche A term loans are substantially the same as the terms of CCOC’s outstanding tranche A term loans under the CCOC credit facility and will mature on November 1, 2018 (or, upon the satisfaction of certain events, January 31, 2019). The incremental tranche A term loans bear interest at a per annum rate equal to LIBOR plus 1.50% to 2.25%, based on CCOC’s total net leverage ratio.
Proceeds of the incremental term loans were used by CCOC to prepay a portion of the outstanding revolving credit loans under CCOC’s existing revolver. After giving effect to such prepayment, CCOC has approximately $374 million of revolving credit loans outstanding under its existing $1.5 billion revolver.
Crown Castle owns, operates and leases towers and other infrastructure for wireless communications in the U.S. and Australia.