Skillsoft announced it has entered into a $150 million accounts receivable credit facility provided by Sound Point Capital Management, LP and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc.
The borrower under the credit facility is Skillsoft Receivables Financing LLC, a bankruptcy-remote Delaware limited liability company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Skillsoft Corporation. The credit facility is non-recourse to Skillsoft Corporation and is not subject to any financial covenants.
The credit facility allows the company to borrow against its high-quality accounts receivable and provides incremental capital to the company in addition to its existing $100 million revolving credit facility. The availability under the Credit Facility depends on a borrowing base that will vary throughout the year depending on the quantity of eligible accounts receivable available resulting from the seasonality of the business. At closing the company expects an initial draw amount of approximately $70 million under the accounts receivable credit facility.
“We are happy to be partnering with Skillsoft CEO Chuck Moran and his team on this important transaction,” said Stephen Ketchum, founder and managing partner of Sound Point. “It fits our objective of providing creative financing solutions to businesses with strong management teams and we feel it will benefit Skillsoft as well as our investors.” Ketchum added, “This is just another example of our successful partnership with Morgan Stanley and we look forward to working with them on other transactions.”
Skillsoft intends to use approximately $65 million of the proceeds of the facility to fund its investment in core, compliance and Vodeclic content. The investments will allow the company to remain at the forefront of market-leading innovation that helps customers deliver learning and talent management experiences that enable employees to advance their careers and align their development to organizational goals. The remaining facility is available as further liquidity for the company subject to compliance with the borrowing base. The Company will also expand its salesforce to continue to drive top-line growth.
Rothschild Inc. acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Skillsoft and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as legal counsel to Skillsoft. Linklaters LLP advised Sound Point and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc.
Skillsoft is a pioneer in the fields of learning and talent management with a long history of innovation. Skillsoft provides cloud-based learning solutions for its customers worldwide, ranging from global enterprises, government, and education to mid-sized and small businesses.
Sound Point Capital Management, LP is a New York-based asset management firm founded in 2008 with particular expertise in credit strategies. Sound Point manages money on behalf of institutions, pensions, foundations, insurance companies, wealth management firms, family offices and high net worth individuals. As of Sept. 30, 2015, Sound Point managed more than $7 billion in total assets.