Morgan Stanley is sounding out investors for US$950 million ($1.2 billion) of leveraged loans to refinance software platform BetaNXT Inc’s debt, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest example of activity shifting between private credit and the broadly syndicated market.
The proposed loans would refinance debt initially secured from private creditors including BC Partners after a group of banks led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc were unable to syndicate the debt in 2023.
The new pricing is expected to be lower than the private credit financing, which was priced at 5.75 percentage points (ppts) over the benchmark, said the people, who were not authorised to speak publicly. BetaNXT’s financial performance has improved since the 2023 debt financing, which should help it secure a better rate, they added.
Representatives for Morgan Stanley, BetaNXT and BC Partners declined to comment, as did the company’s private equity backers, Clearlake Capital Group LP and Motive Partners.
BetaNXT, which provides technology services for wealth management firms, currently has around US$900 million in debt, including a US$730 million term loan, the people said. Morgan Stanley has been reaching out to investors this week to gauge their interest in refinancing the debt, they said.
Clearlake and Motive bought the assets of BetaNXT — then called BETA+ — from the London Stock Exchange Group in 2022. BetaNXT has completed two acquisitions since then, including Delta Data, which provides technology to investment funds, in May.
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Goldman Sachs and other banks were left holding the roughly US$750 million loan that helped fund the buyout when credit markets soured in 2022. In total, Wall Street banks were stuck with more than US$40 billion of buyout-related debt at that time.
