Certares Opportunities and Knighthead Provide Financial Juice for Global Blue Group
Posted on 05/09/2022
CK Opportunities Fund I, LP is an investment fund co-managed by Certares Opportunities LLC, a global travel, tourism and hospitality investment firm, and Knighthead Opportunities Capital Management, LLC, a credit investment management firm. CK Opportunities Fund I has agreed to invest $225 million in Global Blue Group Holding AG, of which $180 million is for Series B preferred shares and $45 million is for common shares. The new Series B preferred shares will be issued at a price of $8.50 per share. The Series B preferred stock will carry a 5% annual pay-in-kind dividend rate and are convertible into approximately 21 million registered common shares on a one-for-one and basis. The $45 million of common stock will be issued translating to approximately 9 million shares. CK Opportunities’ as-converted ownership in Global Blue will be just over 13% of the total issued share capital on a fully-diluted basis following the issuance of all of the new Series B preferred shares and registered common shares.
Global Blue intends to use the funds to continue pursuing strategic add-on acquisitions in omnichannel Retail Technology and to fund working capital requirements associated with the significant recovery underway in its core Tax-Free Shopping business, after two years of reduced activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Global Blue works in the “Tax Free Shopping” space.