International law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented Morgan Stanley as administrative agent, joint lead arranger and joint bookrunner, and Deutsche Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch as joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners, in connection with $625 million senior secured first-lien credit facilities for HFOTCO LLC, or Houston Fuel Oil Terminal Company (HFOTCO), a portfolio company of Alinda Capital Partners LLC. The proceeds of the credit facilities were used to refinance certain of HFOTCO’s outstanding indebtedness. The transaction closed in August 2014.
The credit facilities are comprised of a $550 million senior secured first-lien term loan B facility and a $75 million senior secured first-lien revolving credit facility. Concurrently with the transaction, HFOTCO also obtained a “super senior” secured first-lien bond purchase facility for the repurchase of $225 million of HFOTCO’s outstanding bonds.
HFOTCO owns and operates a 16.1 million barrel storage and terminal facility strategically located at the widest point of the Houston Ship Channel, one of the largest trading centers for residual fuel oil and crude oil in the world. HFOTCO is the largest provider of residual fuel oil storage in the U.S. Gulf Coast and also provides crude oil storage.
The Milbank Global Leveraged Finance team was led by partner Michael Bellucci and included associates Charles Stern and Christopher Kwan. Also providing advice on the transaction was Project Finance Group partner Jonathan Green.
