RLPC-Alliance Medical 372 mln stg loan launches-source

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) - A 372 million pounds ($723.6 million) loan backing the leveraged buyout of British diagnostic scanning operator Alliance Medical by Dubai International Capital (DIC) has launched into syndication, a bank source said.

A bank meeting was held in London on Thursday.

Pricing on the financing, which is led by Bank of Scotland and Dresdner Kleinwort, was increased prior to launch to cater for difficult loan market conditions, bankers close to the deal said.

The arrangers originally approached existing lenders and DIC's relationship banks at the end of 2007, and pre-placed a 100 million pound mezzanine facility and some of the senior loan.

Private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital [BRDG.UL] then joined DIC as a sponsor on the deal and margins on the 110 million pound eight-year term loan B and nine-year term loan C facilities were increased by 62.5 basis points (bps) to 337.5 and 287.5 bps over LIBOR respectively.

The senior financing also includes a 32 million pound seven-year term loan A facility, a 20 million pound seven-year revolving credit facility and a 300 million pound capital expenditure facility, which pay margins of 225 bps, 225 bps and 300 bps respectively.

Banks are being asked to commit 50 million pounds for a 150 bps fee or 25 million pounds for a 100 bps fee.

DIC paid private equity firm Bridgepoint 600 million pounds for the company in November 2007, marking DIC's first transaction in the health care sector.

Based in Warwickshire, England, Alliance Medical was founded in 1989 and provides a range of diagnostic imaging services used in hospitals across Europe. It also manages static and mobile scanners.

(Reporting by Alasdair Reilly; Editing by Rory Channing)