By Claire Ruckin and Andrew Berlin
LONDON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - More banks are poised to join a US$14bn financing backing US private equity firm Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Group's BX.N acquisition of a majority stake in the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters Corp TRI.TO , banking sources said on Wednesday.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE:BAC), Citigroup (NYSE:C) and JP Morgan are leading the financing and are talking to other banks including Barclays (LON:BARC), Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and RBC about joining the deal shortly, the sources said.
"Every man and his dog is pitching to get in on the action," a loan syndicate head said.
The large deal is attracting interest from banks vying for roles on the lucrative underwritten leveraged loan and high yield bond financing. Appointments will be partly based on how much business the banks do with Thomson Reuters, the sources said.
Once the bank group is complete, the highly anticipated US$14bn financing is expected to launch for wider syndication to institutional investors in March, the sources said.
Blackstone and Thomson Reuters declined to comment.
TIMING CONSIDERATIONS
Recent market volatility has had a destabilising effect on the debt markets, which could be exacerbated by Wednesday's US inflation figures.
The financing was underwritten before stock markets slumped on February 2, and the three lead banks may wait until market conditions are more stable to launch the deal.
"US inflation figures will be a catalyst ... I would expect they (the lead banks) will want to see how the next few days play out, then they'll either rush it out or hold out and hope things improve," a senior investor said.
Prolonged volatility could encourage banks joining the deal to negotiate for better fees and titles to compensate for increased market risk, the investor said.
The jumbo deal is being run from New York and will require participation from nearly all Transatlantic loan and bond investors in order to play markets off against each other and achieve best execution for the borrower.
Secondary prices are a key indicator of volatility and sentiment and could also dictate timing as falling bids often encourage investors to seek more compensation.
Banks and investors are confident that the financing will be well received as cash-rich funds are eager to put fresh capital to work in size, the sources said.
DEAL STRUCTURE
The debt will be mainly denominated in dollars and bankers are currently assessing how much will be denominated in euros. Even a small euro tranche could mean 1bn-2bn of debt being syndicated in Europe, the sources said.
A US$14bn financing would give leverage of around 7.5 times, based on last 12 months Ebitda of approximately US$1.7bn for the F&R unit. Senior leverage of roughly 4.5-5.0 times could give a loan of US$8bn-$9bn, and junior debt of US$4bn-$5bn, sources said.
Another source familiar with the matter said previously that leverage was expected to be below 6.0 times.
Blackstone will acquire a 55% stake in the F&R business and Thomson Reuters will retain a 45% holding.
Loan Pricing Corp is a unit of Thomson Reuters. (Editing by Tessa Walsh)