UN Unilever NV

Janatorial supply company JohnsonDiversey Inc. is planning to sell $250 million of 10.5 year payment-in-kind or PIK bonds a day after raising $400 million in the high-yield market, according to several investors aware of the deal.

The bonds are part of a mutli-pronged refinancing which will allow the company to pay down existing senior secured loans and bonds as part of a broader $2.6-billion recapitalization plan, the investors said.

Proceeds of the payment-in-kind bonds will fund Unilever N.V.'s (UN UNA.AE) exit from part-ownership of the company. Unilever, the British-Dutch consumer products giant, owns a third of JohnsonDiversey and will receive $158 million in cash together with the $250 million of payment-in-kind notes for its stake, Unilever announced last month.

The bond deals run along side a $477 million investment by private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice for a 46% equity stake in the business.

"The recapitalization will provide the company with the financial flexibility to accelerate growth in the global commercial cleaning and hygiene market," JohnsonDiversey said in that statement.

JohnsonDiversey wasn't immediately available to comment on Friday's transaction.

The payment-in-kind bonds will yield 10.5%, and they are expected to price at a discount to par value at around 96 cents through Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.

The bonds will be structured as a payment-in-kind for the first five-years, meaning that the company will pay the interest with more debt rather than in cash.

After five-years, the bonds will become PIK-toggle notes. These types of notes give a company the flexibility to switch between cash and credit payments.

PIK toggles grew in popularity between 2005 and 2007 among speculative-grade issuers and fixed-income investors seeking high returns during the historic buyout boom.

The easy lending terms of these bonds make it possible for companies with strained cash flows to keep their heads above water longer than they otherwise would by deferring interest payments. The problem is that unless the economy recovers sufficiently to allow companies to make interest payments on such debt with more cash, borrowers and also eventually investors could find they have more debt than expected.

Kenneth Monaghan, head of high-yield credit and portfolio manager at Rogge Global Partners in New York said JohnsonDiversey's PIK transaction is something of a special case.

"Its a small overall transaction and for a company that people like. It's a reflection of that. Someone said they are willing to take on greater risk to get more exposure to the company," he said.

-By Kate Haywood, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2218; kate.haywood@dowjones.com

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