Tyson Foods Inc (TSN.N) said on Monday it has entered into a $1 billion senior secured credit facility with JPMorgan Chase bank that will go toward paying down the U.S. meat company’s debt and future financing needs.
Also, the company said it closed on its previously announced $810 million offering of senior notes at 10.5 percent that are due in 2014.
Springdale, Arkansas-based Tyson is the world’s largest U.S. meat company, selling beef, pork and chicken.
The $1 billion credit facility is secured by the company’s cash, accounts receivable and inventory, and is guaranteed by nearly all of the company’s domestic subsidiaries. It will replace a previous revolving credit facility, where the company and subsidiaries had pledged substantially all their assets as collateral.
The new credit facility is scheduled to mature, and the commitments thereunder will terminate, on March 9, 2012.
Tyson and other meat companies have struggled in late 2008 and early 2009 as high feed costs, low meat prices and a drop in sales due to the global recession have hurt business.
Later this month, Tyson is due to close on the C$105.5 million sale of Lakeside Farm Industries, a Canadian beef processing operation, to XL Foods Ltd.
