A group of banks have provided financing to back the $2.6 billion acquisition of Time Warner’s Warner Music Group by an investor group led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s Lexa Partners, Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners. Lexa Partners is the venture capital group of which Bronfman is ceo.
The bank group consists of Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. Reportedly, the investor group will put up about $1.35 billion of equity and rely on debt funding for the rest of the deal. Thomas Lee will put up about $600 million, Bain $350 million, Bronfman $250 million and Providence Equity $150 million.
The four banks all acted as advisors on the deal along with AGM Partners and Jefferies & Co. Scott Sperling, managing director of Thomas Lee, and representatives from Warner Music Group did not return calls. Officials at the banks did not return calls by press time.