Diamond/Sinclair plans new loans, bonds for sports networks purchase

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, May 6 – Diamond Sports Group LLC, a newly formed indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., has received a commitment for $3.6 billion of credit facilities and plans to issue $2.55 billion of senior secured notes and $2,325,000,000 of senior unsecured notes to help fund its acquisition of 21 Regional Sports Networks and Fox College Sports from the Walt Disney Co., according to an 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

The facilities consist of a $300 million five-year revolver and a $3.3 billion seven-year term loan.

Backing the notes is a commitment for a $2.55 billion senior secured bridge loan and a $2,325,000,000 senior unsecured bridge loan.

Also, Sinclair has received a commitment for a $700 million seven-year term loan to help fund the transaction.

JPMorgan Chase Bank, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., RBC Capital Markets and Bank of America Merrill Lynch provided the debt commitment.

In addition, Sinclair has received a commitment to amend its existing credit agreement to provide a $650 million revolver.

Furthermore, to help fund this acquisition, Diamond Sports has received a commitment from JPMorgan Chase Funding Inc. to purchase newly issued perpetual preferred equity of Diamond Sports for $1,025,000,000.

The transaction ascribes a total enterprise value to the assets equal to $10.6 billion, reflecting a purchase price of $9.6 billion, after adjusting for minority equity interests.

Closing is subject to customary conditions, including the approval of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Consolidated net leverage is expected to be 4.7 times and 5.1 times through the preferred financing.

Sinclair is a Hunt Valley, Md.-based television broadcasting company.

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