Banks are lined up to provide up to $1.55 billion worth of loans to W.R. Grace & Co. when the specialty chemical company ends a dozen-year stay in bankruptcy at the end of this month, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. The financing, which carries some $21.25 million worth of fees, is being coordinated globally by affiliates of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG. It involves affiliates or units of Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., HSBC Holdings PLC, Commerzbank AG, KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. At a Jan. 29 bankruptcy court hearing, Grace will seek court authority to enter into the loan commitments along with other final touches on a chapter 11 restructuring that will remove from the Maryland company the threat of billions of dollars worth of liabilities for injuries linked to asbestos, a toxic material used decades ago. Bankruptcy exit financing is "likely to include" a $700 million senior secured term loan, a $200 million euro equivalent senior secured term loan, a $250 million senior secured delayed draw term loan, a senior secured revolving loan of up to $250 million and a multicurrency senior secured revolving loan of up to $150 million, according to papers filed on Tuesday.
