Global Blue Completes Strategic Equity Investment and Entry Into New Credit Agreement

Global Blue Group Holding AG (NYSE: GB and GB.WS), the leading strategic technology and payments partner powering retailers’ improved performance and enhancing shoppers’ experience, is pleased to announce the completion of the strategic equity investment with Tencent, a world leading internet and technology company, and the signing of a new credit agreement which is anticipated to close in early December.

Completion of Strategic Equity Investment
Further to the share purchase and investment agreement dated November 16, 2023, on November 28, 2023, Global Blue completed the sale to Tencent of approximately 9.1 million newly issued common shares for a total consideration of $50 million. Global Blue intends to use the proceeds of the sale to reduce its debt balance, in pursuit of its long-term target of net leverage of less than 2.5x Net Debt / Adjusted EBITDA.

In addition, on November 28, 2023, affiliates of Silver Lake and Partners Group and certain members of the board and management completed the previously announced sale to Tencent of approximately 9.1 million common shares for a total consideration of $50 million.

New Credit Agreement
On November 24, 2023, to further strengthen its balance sheet, Global Blue entered into a new credit agreement consisting of a senior secured term loan (“term loan”) of €610.0 million and a senior secured revolving credit facility (“RCF”) of €97.5 million.

The term loan bears interest at a rate of EURIBOR and an applicable margin of up to 5.00% and will mature in December 2030. The RCF bears interest at a rate of EURIBOR and an applicable margin of up to 4.50% and will mature in June 2030.

ABOUT GLOBAL BLUE

Global Blue pioneered the concept of Tax Free Shopping 40 years ago. Through continuous innovation, we have become the leading strategic technology and payments partner, empowering retailers to improve their performance and shoppers to enhance their experience.

Global Blue offers innovative solutions in three different fields:

• Tax Free Shopping: Helping retailers at over 300,000 points of sale to efficiently manage 35 million Tax Free Shopping transactions a year, thanks to its fully integrated in-house technology platform. Meanwhile, its industry-leading digital Tax Free shopper solutions create a better, more seamless customer experience

• Payments services: Providing a full suite of foreign exchange and Payments technology solutions that allow acquirers, hotels and retailers to offer value-added services and improve the customer experience during 31 million payment transactions a year at 130,000 points of interaction

• Complementary RetailTech: Offering new technology solutions to retailers, including digital receipts and eCommerce returns, that can be easily integrated with their core systems and allow them to optimize and digitalize their processes throughout the omni-channel customer journey, both in-store and online

In addition, Global Blue’s data and advisory services offer a strategic advisory to help retailers identify opportunities for growth, while its shopper experience and engagement solutions provide data-driven solutions to increase footfall, convert footfall to revenue and enhance performance.