Bank of N.Y. is Comcast's lead backer in QVC bid.

Bank of New York has been picked to lead a $1 billion financing for Comcast Corp.'s eleventh-hour bid for QVC Inc., valued at $2.2 billion in cash and securities.

While firm commitments are not yet in hand, Comcast said it was advised by Bank of New York that the bank is "highly confident" of being able to raise the funds.

To make its bid credible, Comcast will need to get firm commitments from its banks soon, observers said.

Comcast's surprise bid, announced late Tuesday, derailed the proposed merger of QVC and CBS.

Chase Headed CBS Team

The Comcast bid was also a blow to Chase Manhattan Bank, which had just won a bidding contest to lead a $2 billion financing for the CBS-QVC merger.

Chase's deal collapsed Wednesday, when CBS announced that it wouldn't seek to top Comcast's bid for QVC, worth $44 a share. CBS's bid was valued at about $38 a share.

The proposed merger of CBS and QVC involved the payment of a special dividend to CBS shareholders, totaling $2.9 billion, which would have been financed with the bank loan and cash on CBS's balance sheet.

Chase is also one of Comcast's major lenders. John Alchin, Comcast's treasurer, said Chase's involvement in the CBS deal would not hurt the bank's standing with Comcast.

For its part, Chase appears eager to participate in the Comcast financing.

"I see no reason why we would not be in a position to work with Comcast on their financing," said Chad Lear, head of the bank's loan syndication department.

The broad outline of Comcast's financing plan was contained in a letter to QVC chairman Barry Diller from Comcast chairman Ralph Roberts and his son Brian, Comcast's president.

Not Many Specifics

Apart from the bank financing, though, the letter was not specific about how the rest of the necessary financing would be raised.

But Comcast officials told analysts Wednesday that the remainder of the financing could be raised through asset sales, funds from outside partners, and the issuance of subordinated debt.

Comcast's other major banks, apart from from Bank of New York and Chase, arc Chemical Bank and Toronto Dominion Bank.

In the aftermath of its collapsed deal with CBS, Chase officials Wednesday were unable to say whether the $2 billion underwriting commitment was the largest single corporate lending commitment in Chase history, but they said it was certainly the biggest in recent memory.

The commitment exceeded the legal lending limit of the bank itself, but not of Chase Manhattan Corp. as a whole.

No One Had Inside Track

Market sources said the contest to lead the CBS deal was based mainly on price, with no one bank having a particular advantage in terms of its relationship with CBS and its chairman, Laurence Tisch.

Several other banks, in addition to Chase, are said to have submitted fully underwritten bids.

Chase officials said the CBS commitment went through the bank's normal credit channels. They refused to say whether the credit approval process had gone as high as Chase chairman Thomas Labrecque or president Arthur Ryan.

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