Skydance’s $49.5B Long-Term Debt Refinancing For WarnerDiscovery Pursuit Consist Of $30B In Investment-Grade Bonds, $12B In High-Yield Second-Lien Junk Bonds, & $7.5B In Loans. Bank Of America Sells 5, 8, 10-Year Junk Bonds, Citigroup Sells Loans, & Both Will Sell 3 & 10-Year Investment-Grade Bonds.

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“Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. are talking to investors about the makeup of the debt package financing Paramount Skydance Corp.’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., with early conversations including about $30 billion of high-grade bonds, around $12 billion of junk bonds, and $7.5 billion of loans.

The roughly $50 billion of financing, one of the most highly-anticipated offerings of the year, may start as soon as the next couple of weeks, Bloomberg previously reported. Its timing coincides with strong demand for credit despite a volatile macro backdrop.

The banks are looking to sell about $30 billion of investment-grade notes in multiple parts, including three- and 10-year portions, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Early pricing discussions on the 10-year tranche are 2.5 to 2.75 percentage points above the benchmark rate, they said.

The breakdown and details of the debt offerings may change, said the people, asking not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly.

A spokesperson for Bank of America declined to comment. Spokespeople for Citigroup and Paramount didn’t return requests for comment.

Apollo Global Management Inc., Bank of America and Citigroup provided the initial financing — originally set at $57.5 billion, consisting of a $54 billion temporary funding and $3.5 billion one-year revolving credit facility. In April, BofA and Citi sold down the financing — by then reduced to $49 billion — to a group of 18 banks.

Now those banks are looking to reduce the risk on their balance sheets, as the short-term financing known as bridge loans are replaced with a combination of investment-grade and junk debt.

The debt package being pitched now also includes about $7.5 billion of loans that will be denominated in US dollars and euros. During this early stage of the marketing process, the US loans are being sounded out at 3 percentage points above the benchmark rate, at a discounted price of about 99 cents on the dollar, the people added.

The financing will also include roughly $12 billion of high-yield bonds that will also be split between the same two currencies, with maturities of five, eight and 10 years, said the people.

The majority of that, about $10 billion, is expected to be in US dollars and the remainder in euros, the people added. The junk bonds will be second-lien notes.

Bank of America is managing the junk-bond offering and Citigroup is running the loan sale, with both banks leading the high-grade bond issue, the people said.

The deal is one of the largest M&A financings in recent years. Warner Brothers was the object of a bidding war that ended earlier this year, with Paramount beating out Netflix Inc. in a $110 billion transaction to create one of the world’s largest entertainment empires.”

Ticking. Time. Bomb.

God, I hope the DOJ suddenly sees reason. The red flags in this are visible from fucking space, man. At the very least, demand Warners/HBO be sold off to someone… not named Ellison.