United States Lime & Minerals Reports New Credit Agreement
DALLAS, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- United States Lime & Minerals, Inc. (NASDAQ:USLM) reported that, on August 25, 2004, the Company entered into a
credit agreement with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. ("Wells Fargo") that includes a
five-year $30,000,000 term loan and a three-year $30,000,000 revolving credit
facility, secured by the Company's and its subsidiaries' assets.
At the closing of the new Wells Fargo credit agreement, the Company borrowed
$37,780,000 (the entire term loan and $7,780,000 on the revolving credit
facility) to repay the outstanding balances, including a prepayment penalty of
approximately $235,000 which will be expensed in the third quarter, on the
Company's previous bank term loan and revolving credit facility. Also,
approximately $632,000 of prepaid financing costs relating to the previous bank
term loan will be expensed in the third quarter. The new term loan will
require quarterly principal payments of $625,000, based on a 12-year
amortization, with a final principal payment of $17,925,000 due on August 25,
2009.
The term loan and revolving credit facility bear interest, at the Company's
option, at either LIBOR plus a margin of 1.25% to 2.50%, or Wells Fargo's Prime
Rate plus a margin of minus 0.50% to plus 0.50%. The margins are based upon
the ratio of the Company's average total funded senior indebtedness to earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation, depletion and amortization (EBITDA). The
initial margins are 1.75% for LIBOR-based loans and 0.0% for Prime Rate-based
loans. The Company paid Wells Fargo an origination fee equal to 0.25% of the
total amount committed under the credit agreement. In conjunction with the new
credit agreement, the Company entered into a hedge to fix the LIBOR rate at
3.87% on $25,000,000 of the new term loan for the period October 1, 2004
through the maturity date, resulting in an interest rate of 5.62% based on the
current LIBOR margin.
"We are very pleased that the value of our assets and our strong cash flows
have enabled us to refinance our existing bank term loan and revolving credit
facility and reduce our term loan interest rate by approximately three and
one-half percentage points," said Timothy W. Byrne, President and Chief
Executive Officer. "The new financing also provides us with additional
flexibility for the future," Mr. Byrne added.
United States Lime & Minerals, Inc. is a Nasdaq-listed public company with
headquarters in Dallas, Texas, supplying lime and limestone products primarily
to the steel, paper, agriculture, environmental protection and construction
industries from plants situated in Texas, Arkansas and Colorado.
Any statements contained in this news release that are not statements of
historical fact are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company undertakes no obligation
to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, and investors are
cautioned that such statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from expectations, including without
limitation those risks and uncertainties indicated from time to time in the
Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. DATASOURCE: United States Lime & Minerals, Inc.
CONTACT: Timothy W. Byrne of United States Lime & Minerals, Inc., +1-972-991-8400 Web site: http://www.uslm.com/
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