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LPC-Doughty Hanson buys German car repair chain ATU-bankers

LONDON, June 21 (LPC) - U.K.-based private equity firm Doughty Hanson has bought a majority stake in Auto-Teile-Unger, Germany's largest independent car repair and spare parts chain, banking sources said on Friday.

The leveraged buy-out of the business, which is known as ATU, is supported by a loan financing of 695 million euros ($670.8 million) which indicates a purchase price of up to one billion euros, bankers said. Peter Unger, ATU's founder, will retain a shareholding in the business, Doughty Hanson said in a statement.

The debt financing consists of 545 million euros of senior debt and a large 150 million euro piece of subordinated mezzanine debt.

Arrangers HypoVereinsbank and Mizuho Corporate Bank will syndicate the deal further in the loan market in early July, banking sources said.

ATU owns 383 branches in Germany as well as 12 in Austria and one in the Czech Republic and had turnover of around one billion euros in 2001.

Doughty Hanson plans to extend the branch network and plans to exit via an IPO within five years, according to the company.