Mandates for a refinancing at underground mining services group Barminco may be awarded next week.
Street Talk can reveal short-listed banks are due to lodge detailed commercial proposals early next week ahead of a decision on who will run the recapitalisation.
The decision is said to depend on the structures proposed including whether Barminco should refinance in the US high yield bond market or the US term loan B market. It will also feed into Gresham Private Equity's slated float of the business in late 2017 or early 2018.
Banks are competing hard for the refinancing proposal to position for a role on Barminco's run at the ASX boards.
Gresham bought a majority stake in Barminco in 2007 from founder Peter Bartlett. He retains a holding in the company and a seat on the board.
This month, Barminco finance chief Peter Bryant told The Australian Financial Review the company wanted to have the refinancing well and truly bedded down before the bonds are reclassified as current debt at the end of May 2017.
As at June 30, the remaining bonds on issue were valued at US$306.2 million. That followed the repurchase of some of the senior unsecured notes after a total of US$485 million was raised in 2013.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and HSBC were involved in managing that issuance. They were among banks including UBS, Credit Suisse and Macquarie Capital that were part of a Barminco beauty parade late last year.
