KKR Secures £1.75 Billion Debt Funding for Spectris Acquisition Bid

Banks including JPMorgan Chase, Jefferies, and Crédit Agricole are arranging £1.75 billion of debt financing for KKR's £4.1 billion acquisition of Spectris Plc. The financing will consist of a £1.5 billion term loan and a £250 million revolving credit facility. The deal is expected to be launched for syndication to institutional investors later this year. KKR's bid topped a £3.8 billion bid from a consortium led by Advent.

In a significant move to finance its £4.1 billion acquisition of Spectris Plc, KKR & Co. has secured £1.75 billion in debt financing from a group of leading banks. The financing package, arranged by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Jefferies, and Crédit Agricole SA, includes a £1.5 billion term loan and a £250 million revolving credit facility. The deal is expected to be launched for syndication to institutional investors later this year [3].

KKR's offer for Spectris, a UK-based provider of high-tech instruments, test equipment, and software, topped a £3.8 billion bid from a consortium led by Advent International LP. The Spectris board unanimously accepted KKR's offer, valuing the company at £4.1 billion, which includes a 20 pence dividend per share. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026 [2].

The financing package for KKR's bid is more conservative than the one previously agreed upon by Advent. Advent had secured an agreed deal before being outbid by KKR, whose higher offer was accepted by the Spectris board. The Advent-led financing included a £1.75 billion term loan split between sterling, euros, and dollars, £325 million of second-lien debt in dollars, and a £325 million multi-currency revolving credit facility [3].

The deal is expected to be launched for syndication to euro, dollar, and sterling institutional investors later this year. The financing for the KKR bid will equate to around 5 times Spectris' earnings, indicating a conservative approach compared to the Advent package [3].

The acquisition is a strategic move for KKR, which aims to revive its dealmaking footprint in the UK after stepping away from potential deals with London-listed analytics firm GlobalData Plc and Thames Water, the country's biggest water company [3].

References:
[1] https://www.gurufocus.com/news/2956874/kkr-acquires-spectris-in-56-billion-deal?mod=news_archive&r=4bf001661e6fdd88d0cd7a5659ff9748
[2] https://www.ajbell.co.uk/articles/latestnews/290344/spectris-accepts-41-billion-takeover-offer-kkr-over-advent
[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-09/banks-line-up-1-75-billion-of-debt-funding-for-kkr-spectris-bid