Everything Everywhere Agrees Refinancing Deal

UK network Everything Everywhere has announced that it has successfully refinanced its £875 million debt with a new loan and a credit facility.

The new finance will pay back money which the two partners in the joint venture, T-Mobile and Orange, put in at its formation. This was to pay off loans to the standalone UK networks, which had to be cancelled before the new body could form. Everything Everywhere now has a term loan and a multicurrency revolving credit facilitiy with maturities of between three and five years.

No change in ownership

The facilities have been provided by a number of banks including Bank of Tokyo-Mitsibushi UFJ, Barclays Capital, HSBC, JP Morgan, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Scotland.

“We are pleased to receive the support of the high quality lenders who are participating in our new bank financing facilities, recognising the strength of Everything Everywhere as the largest mobile network operator in the UK,” said Neal Milsom, chief financial officer of Everything Everywhere.

The news comes as no great surprise as such a deal had been speculated earlier this month, leading to rumours of a potential separation from Everything Everywhere’s parent companies Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom.

However Everything Everywhere is still owned 50/50 by the two European telcos; the new facilities will simply refinance part of a £1.25 billion shareholder loan provided equally on its formation by the two parent companies and that both still own 50 percent of the business each.

Everything Everywhere was formed in July 2010 following the merger of UK networks Orange and T-Mobile, which gave the new company a 37 percent market share, or over half the UK population.

The merger was viewed as an equal partnership, but recent job cuts and a shakeup in the management team means that not a single T-Mobile executive remains on the board, adding strength to the argument that in reality, the merger was effectively an Orange takeover.