Esmark Receives Underwritten Commitment for New Credit Facility
02/05/2008 - Esmark accepts commitment from GE Corporate Lending, its lead lender, for a fully underwritten $500 million revolving credit facility that will replace an existing $150 million revolver at Esmark Steel Service Group and a $225 million revolver at Wheeling-Pittsburgh.
Esmark Inc. has accepted a commitment for a fully underwritten $500 million revolving credit facility from its lead lender, GE Corporate Lending.
Esmark’s new facility will replace an existing $150 million revolver at Esmark Steel Service Group, Inc. and a $225 million revolver at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp.
"We are proud to announce this commitment to underwrite a new credit facility, particularly given the exceptional tightness of the current global credit markets,” said Craig Bouchard, Esmark’s Vice Chairman and President. “We believe it underscores the confidence that our key financial partners have in our strategic and tactical plans.”
The company expects to close on the new facility in the first quarter, pending the satisfaction of such conditions as definitive documentation and required arrangements with the company's other material indebtedness.
“Upon completion, we are confident that this new facility will provide the company with the liquidity necessary to execute our plan to build a large and profitable steel services company,” concluded Bouchard.
Esmark Inc., a vertically integrated steel producer and distributor, combines steel production capabilities through both blast furnace and electric arc furnace technologies with the just-in-time delivery of value-added steel products to a broad customer base concentrated in the Ohio Valley and Midwest regions. Currently headquartered in Wheeling, W.Va., the company produces carbon flat-rolled products for the construction, container, appliance, converter/processor, steel service center, automotive and other markets. Products include various sheet products such as hot rolled, cold rolled, hot dipped galvanized, electro-galvanized, black plate and electrolytic tinplate.
