Société Générale has fully underwritten a $180 million credit for the Boston Celtics Limited Partnership, backing the acquisition of the basketball team by Boston Basketball Partners, a local private investment group. The credit consists of a $100 million secured term loan at the team level and an $80 million unsecured term loan at the holding company level. The National Basketball Association has a debt cap of $100 million, explained a banker familiar with the deal, which is why the line is split into two loans. The team loan is priced at LIBOR plus 11Ž 2%, while the holding company loan has a LIBOR plus 21Ž 2% spread, the banker noted. An SG official declined to comment.
SG is in talks with a top-tier underwriting group and expects to close on that level before the end of the year, the banker stated. He added that general syndication of the credit should commence at the beginning of next year. SG won the mandate over other lenders, the banker said, though he could not specify which banks were bidding for the business. SG is an active sports lender in the North American loan market. The investment group acquiring the team includes co-managers Wycliffe Grousbeck, general partner at Highland Capital Partners, H. Irving Grousbeck, co-founder of Continental Cablevision and Stephen Pagliuca, managing director at Bain Capital. Officials in the Celtics front office did not return calls for comment.