Wall Street banks boost Warner Bros loan to over $10 billion ahead of Paramount merger

Kitco Media
By Reuters
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Reuters
Wall Street banks boost Warner Bros loan to over $10 billion ahead of Paramount merger teaser image

May 21 (Reuters) - Wall Street banks led by JPMorgan (JPM.N), have increased the size of a loan ​package for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O), to over $10 ‌billion as the media company seeks to refinance debt ahead of its planned merger with Paramount Skydance (PSKY.O), ​according to terms seen by Reuters ​on Thursday.

The U.S. dollar term loan was ⁠increased to $9 billion from $5 billion, while a ​1 billion euro ($1.16 billion) loan remained unchanged, the ​terms showed.

JPMorgan, Barclays, BNP, Deutsche Bank, NatWest, RBC, UBS, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs are the bookrunners on ​the transaction, according to the terms.

The financing ​comes as Paramount moves ahead with its planned acquisition ‌of ⁠Warner Bros Discovery, a deal valued at about $110 billion that was signed recently after Netflix declined to raise its offer.

The merger would combine ​Paramount assets, ​including CBS, ⁠MTV, Comedy Central and BET with Warner Bros Discovery properties such ​as CNN, TNT and Food Network.

JPMorgan ​has ⁠already earned $189 million in financing and other fees tied to Warner Bros-related transactions, according to a ⁠Reuters ​report in January.

($1 = 0.8610 euros)

Reporting ​by Prakhar Srivastava in Bengaluru and Saeed Azhar in New ​York; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Shinjini Ganguli

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