Rona renews its credit facility for five years, increases available amount to C$950M from C$650M; refinancing 'attests to Rona's strong financial position,' company officials say

Cindy Allen

BOUCHERVILLE, Quebec , December 23, 2011 (Marketwire) – RONA Inc. (TSX:RON)(TSX:RON.PR.A), Canada's leading retailer and distributor of hardware, renovation and gardening products, announced today that it has renewed its existing credit facility for a period of five years. Maturing in 2012, the credit facility was renewed until 2016, with the total available amount increased from $650 million to $950 million. The facility can be extended annually. The refinancing was carried out with a bank syndicate led by National Bank Financial, BMO Capital Markets, Desjardins Capital Markets and Scotia Capital in their capacity as co-lead arrangers and joint bookrunners, and with the National Bank of Canada acting as administrative agent. Eight other financial institutions also participated in the financing.

"The refinancing concluded today attests to RONA's strong financial position and represents another step in the execution of our capital optimization strategy", said RONA executive vice president and CFO Dominique Boies. "The credit facility will be used for RONA's general needs and future development projects as well as to refinance a portion of the corporation's recently redeemed debentures", added M. Boies.

The agreement includes certain restrictive clauses and the standard financial ratio requirements. The credit facility ranks pari passu with RONA's outstanding unsecured debentures maturing in 2016 and will accrue interest at market rates plus a margin based on the Standard & Poor's and DBRS credit rating assigned to RONA's debentures or on the Corporation's leverage ratio.

About RONA

RONA is the largest Canadian distributor and retailer of hardware, renovation and gardening products. The company operates a network of some 950 corporate, franchise and affiliate stores of various sizes and formats. With close to 30,000 employees working under its family of banners in every region of Canada and more than 17 million square feet of retail space, the RONA store network generates over $6 billion in annual retail sales. For more information, please visit www.rona.ca.

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