Bankers are reaching out to investors ahead of the sale of $49 billion in financing backing Paramount Skydance Corp.'s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., after the company settled a series of lawsuits that had held up the $110 billion acquisition. Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., and Apollo Global Management Inc. underwrote one of the largest buyout debt packages on record earlier this year to fund the takeover, and lined up significant investor demand before the deal ground to a halt amid the threat of legal proceedings. The $49 billion package includes about $30 billion of investment-grade bonds, $7.5 billion of investment-grade loans and roughly $12 billion of second-lien bonds, targeting a wider range of dollar and euro investors than is typical for a leveraged buyout. The debt was structured to leave Paramount on the hook, rather than its lenders, if borrowing costs rise, with no caps on the interest rate, which should prevent a repeat of the hit banks took on so-called hung loans in 2022. Regulators in nearly 70 jurisdictions have already approved the merger, and the Federal Communications Commission and other federal agencies signed off on an extraordinary level of foreign financing, making it likely the acquisition can close very soon.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc
Apollo Global Management LLC Class A
Bank of America Corp
Citigroup Inc.
Bank of Chongqing Co Ltd
