Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) has begun marketing $13.8 billion in loans as part of its planned $56.7 billion purchase of Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), according to Bloomberg, which cited anonymous sources.
Bloomberg reported that Charter is seeking a $6 billion secured loan, as well as two unsecured loans totaling $7.8 billion. Credit Suisse Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., Deutsche Bank AG and UBS Group AG are arranging this "bridge financing," which will eventually be replaced by with bonds.
Charter also obtained commitments from banks to provide as much as $15 billion in senior secured term loans, as well as a $1.7 billion credit line, according to a company SEC filing rendered in May.
Charter has not commented on the report.
Charter entered into an agreement in May to purchase TWC for $56.7 billion in cash and stock, a deal the company expects to close the transaction by the end of this year.
Lining up the cash for major transactions like Charter's planned purchase of TWC is not without obstacles. For example, at one during the long regulatory process for the now-failed Comcast-TWC deal, Charter CFO Christopher Winfrey conceded the company was paying round $1 million a day in interest, waiting for federal approval of the merger. Charter had obtained numerous bank loans and credit lines as part of its role in the scuttled $45 billion Comcast-TWC merger.
For more:
- read this Bloomberg story
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