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May 1 – May 8, 2011 Edition Barnes & Noble Gets Relief on $1 Billion Credit Terms
New York, NY (May 2, 2011)-Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that it has entered into an amendment that will extend its existing $1 billion revolving credit agreement on more favorable terms.
The amended $1 billion revolving credit facility takes advantage of conditions in the financial markets that are more favorable than when the original facility was established. The amended facility has lower interest costs, greater financial flexibility and increases overall borrowing capacity throughout the year. The amendment also extends the previous maturity date from September 29, 2013 to April 29, 2016. For further details, see the company’s Current Report on Form 8-K being filed today with the SEC.
“Amending our revolving credit facility enables us to lower our anticipated cost of capital and enhance our financial flexibility as we continue to transform the company and execute our strategic plan,” said Joseph Lombardi, chief financial officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. “We appreciate the strong level of support we received from our lenders.”
As a result of the amendment, the company will write-off $6.4 million in deferred financing fees from the previous facility in fiscal 2011. Beginning in fiscal 2012, the company expects lower interest costs and reduced amortization of deferred financing fees to reduce interest expense by $10.6 million annually. The company ended fiscal year 2011 on April 30, 2011 with $313 million of outstanding borrowings under the facility.
The transaction was led by BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Wells Fargo Capital Finance, LLC, and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. as Joint Lead Arrangers and Joint Book Runners, and was supported by many other financial institutions. Bank of America, N.A. will serve as Administrative Agent for the facility.
ABOUT BARNES & NOBLE, INC.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 705 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than two million titles in its NOOK Bookstore(TM) (www.bn.com/ebooks).
