Vivint gets $125M increase in financing

PROVO, Utah—Vivint, formerly APX Alarm, has completed a $690 million senior debt financing with a group of lenders led by Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending Group. The new credit facility is an increase of $125 million over its previous financing, according to the home automation/security company, which is based here.

“We're excited,” Vivint COO Alex Dunn told Security Systems News April 5.

He said he believes it is “the largest syndicated bank debt deal in the (security) space.” Dunn said that it enables Vivint “to really be focused on the home automation services that we're selling. It enables us to expand out beyond just our traditional security offerings.”

Vivint, formerly APX Alarm, rebranded on Feb. 1 to underscore its expansion into home automation.

Then, just last week, the company announced its expanded credit facility.

In a March 29 press release, the company said the $125 million increase over the previous financing “provides more flexibility for the company as it expands its penetration into the residential security and home automation markets.”

Chris Black, Vivint CFO, said in a statement:

“We are extremely pleased with the continued support from all 13 institutions within our bank group. The additional financing will help support what we expect to be a record-setting year for the company in terms of new customer account originations and adoption of our home automation platform.”

Vivint, a summer-sales-model giant that operates in the United States and Canada, has more than 5,000 employees and serves nearly 500,000 customers, according to the company.

In 2010, Dunn said the company had more than 170,000 gross installations. He said the company had about 70 sales teams last year and the average sales per rep were the best ever.

This year, he said, the company's goal is about 200,000 gross installs and it plans to have about 90 sales teams, he said.

Last fall, when it was still APX, Vivint announced a similar $125 million increase in its debt financing, with a grand total then of $565 million.

Black at that time described it as the “largest of its kind” bank facility in the security space. Dunn said this week that now the new bank facility has overtaken that title.

Dunn said the lenders this time are the same as last time. “We didn't add any new sources,” he told SSN. He said the existing lenders “increased the amount they were lending us in the facility.”

He added: “It's a very big vote of confidence from our lenders.”

The deal with Vivint is one of the latest examples of Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending Group's investment in the security space. In February of this year, it joined other lenders in a deal in which ASG Security upped its line of credit to $230 million.