By Claire Ruckin
LONDON (Reuters) - Banks have lined up around 550 million euros (383.7 million pounds) of leveraged loans to back German cable company Tele Columbus' (DE:TC1n) acquisition of PrimaCom, banking sources said on Thursday.
Tele Columbus agreed to acquire PrimaCom for 711 million euros, combining the country's third and fourth biggest operators, with a fully underwritten financing including both a senior and junior tranche and a 125 million euro equity bridge loan, according to a Tele Columbus statement on Thursday.
Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are global coordinators of the financing alongside bookrunner BNP Paribas (PARIS:BNPP), the banking sources said.
The financing is expected to exceed 550 million euros when undrawn facilities are added, the banking sources said.
The drawn financing is likely to comprise first and second lien, euro-denominated leveraged loans which could launch for sale to institutional investors via a syndication process next week, the sources said.
Total leveraged is expected at 5 times debt to earnings.
Tele Columbus raised a 500 million euro loan in January to refinance existing debt following an IPO, according to Thomson Reuters LPC.
Combining Tele Columbus and PrimaCom will create a group supplying about 2.8 million homes, placing it third behind Vodafone-controlled Kabel Deutschland (DE:KD8Gn) and Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA)'s Unitymedia.