US cableco Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) is to follow up its US$15.5bn senior secured bond offering with a proposed 1st lien senior secured term loan.
The loan, which is rated Ba1 by Moody’s, is being taken out by holding…
US cableco Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) is to follow up its US$15.5bn senior secured bond offering with a proposed 1st lien senior secured term loan.
The loan, which is rated Ba1 by Moody’s, is being taken out by holding subsidiary CCO Safari III LLC and will rank pari passu with the notes. The size of the facility is yet to be determined.
The total financing is to be used to help fund the company’s acquisitions of Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) and Bright House Networks for US$56bn and US$10.4bn respectively.
Charter netted US$15.5bn of high-yield debt in a six tranche note issuance on 9 July. The financing comprised US$2bn of 3.579% senior notes due 2020, US$3bn of 4.464% notes due 2022, US$4.5bn of 4.908% notes due 2025, US$2bn of 6.384% notes due 2035, US$3.5bn of 6.484% due 2045, and US$500m of 6.834% notes due 2055.
All the notes priced at par and the offering closes on 23 July. Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and UBS are joint bookrunning managers for the transaction.
Proceeds from both the proposed term loan and the bond offering will be held in escrow contingent upon the closing of the TWC acquisition. There is no contingency for completing the acquisition of Bright House.
Charter has said it aims to close the deals by the end of this year.
