As one of the busiest consolidators in the industry, Birch Communications has spent its share of time with the bankers. Yesterday they took the wraps off a new refinancing that will pad their cash balance by $25M.
They’ve managed to increase their senior credit capacity to $175M, while bringing in Union Bank to join its growing list of creditors. CoBank signed on back in February with $12M, and Wells Fargo last fall with $17M.
They’ll use some of the funds to pay off subordinated debt, and the rest to help with funding the deal for Kentucky’s Lightyear. And of course, that puts them in a position to further the rollup as they continue to assemble their IP and managed services business deal by deal.
And speaking of Lightyear, they and Delaware’s Open Access each settled their open FCC cases for voluntary contributions of $475K and $1.3M, respectively. The cases had involved alleged violations of the USF contribution requirements some time back, and for Lightyear resolving the situation was necessary to the closing of the purchase by Birch. No doubt that will be closing before long.
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Categories: CLEC · Government Regulations · Mergers and Acquisitions
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Birch just announced that deal closed