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Investing.com -- Banco Santander SA was engaged to help First Brands Group with a refinancing effort months before the auto-parts supplier filed for bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Spanish bank signed an engagement letter to work alongside Jefferies Financial Group Inc. on First Brands’ attempt to refinance approximately $6 billion of debt over the summer, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
While Jefferies was advertised as the lead on the refinancing pitch, Santander had a pre-existing relationship with First Brands. The refinancing effort was ultimately shelved after investors requested a quality of earnings report and some sought additional information about the company’s off-balance-sheet borrowing.
First Brands filed for bankruptcy on September 28. At the time of filing, the company had a $77 million loan from Santander tied to an entity that is not part of the U.S. business and not involved in the Chapter 11 proceedings, one of the people said.
The relationship between Santander and First Brands predates the recent refinancing attempt. Last year, First Brands tried to raise new debt financing to support separating its operations outside of North America into a standalone entity, according to the company’s bankruptcy declaration. Santander led that process, which sought to raise €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) to €1.5 billion of debt to finance the effort.
The auto-parts supplier’s operations outside North America include businesses in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
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