Sophos refinancing includes a euro loan to satisfy demand
COMPUTER security company Sophos, owned by private equity giant Apax Partners, has carved out a quarter of a $400m (£243.6m) loan for syndication in euros due to increased demand from investors.
The Oxford-based business, which offers anti-spyware and anti-virus software to businesses and consumers, refinanced its debt pile through the $400m seven-year loan marketed by Deutsche Bank.
It will now syndicate a €75m (£61.9m) tranche in euros in a sign of an uptick in the European primary loan market, which has been relatively subdued so far this year.
The move comes as annual accounts for the UK unit of Sophos reported a slight dip in revenues for the last financial year. The UK subsidiary said turnover declined four per cent to £113.9m from £119.3m for the 12 months ending March 2013, according to accounts filed at Companies House.
Staff levels fell by 60 to 452, the results show, as part of a company restructure to “improve the cost base of the engineering development team”.
Sophos could not be reached for comment yesterday.