Kuwait’s Agility more than doubles credit lines to $3.2bn to fund John Menzies buyout

Logistics company expects to close the deal to fully acquire the British airport services group on August 4

Kuwait-based Agility will merge its subsidiary, National Aviation Services, with John Menzies. AFP

Kuwait-based Agility, one of the largest logistics companies in the Mena region, is refinancing and more than doubling its credit lines to fund the acquisition of UK-based John Menzies and drive other growth plans.

The company is raising its credit lines with existing and new local, regional and international banks to $3.2 billion, from $1.4bn, Agility said in a bourse filing to the Dubai Financial Market on Monday.

The credit lines have maturities of three, five and six years.

As part of this move, Agility on Monday closed a new credit line of $700m and expects further rounds in the coming weeks, it said.

“The purpose of these facilities is to finance the company’s growth plans, including the long-term financing of the John Menzies acquisition,” Agility said.

“Only amounts drawn from the facility will be reflected in the company's financials.”

Earlier this month, Agility said it expected to close a deal to fully acquire British airport services group John Menzies on August 4.

The conditions related to foreign direct investment and antitrust approvals have been met or waived, although the closing of the deal still remains subject to certain other conditions, including the approval of the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Agility said last week.

The £571 million ($685.2m) deal will create an airport services giant as air travel makes a strong recovery from the coronavirus-induced slowdown.

Travel demand has rebounded after two years of Covid-19 lockdowns, leaving understaffed airports and airlines struggling to cope with an influx of travellers.

Menzies will be combined with National Aviation Services, a unit of Kuwait's Agility, once the deal has been completed.

The combined group is expected to be the largest, second largest and third largest worldwide in terms of the number of countries it operates in, airports served and revenue, respectively.

It will have about 35,000 employees and a presence at more than 250 airports in 57 countries, handling more than 600,000 aircraft turns a year.

Agility reported a 1 per cent rise in first-quarter net income as revenue climbed.

Net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent company for the three-month period to the end of March climbed to 12.8m Kuwaiti dinars ($41.7m).

The company's revenue jumped 22.3 per cent to 132.1m dinars in the quarter.