In Brief: Goldman Sachs Closes $150M Cable TV Loan

Goldman, Sachs & Co. recently closed a $150 million highly leveraged loan package for Optel Inc., a cable television company.

General Electric Capital Corp. acted as documentation agent on the senior credit facility, with CIBC Oppenheimer as administrative agent. Ten investors committed themselves to the new loan, according to a source close to the deal.

The loan is one of a host of new financings for the media and telecommunications industry expected this year. Loans and bonds for the industry made up much of the leveraged financing market last year, accounting for more than 23% of the $107.8 billion junk bond market, according to Securities Data Co.

The loan "will provide us with adequate capital to fund our planned expansion for around the next two years," said Louis Brunel, president and chief executive officer of Optel, in a statement.

The credit consists of a $125 million term loan and a $25 million revolving credit commitment, both with terms of six-and-a-half years and initial interest rates set at 350 basis points over the London interbank offered rate.

The term loan facility is structured as a loan-bond hybrid tranche and includes such typical bond-like features as call protection.

Last February Optel secured $225 million in a private placement of debt and equity.

Dallas-based Optel sells private cable television and telecommunications services to residents of multiple dwelling unit developments in 11 major U.S. cities.

Goldman Sachs won the lead position on the new financing through its ties to Le Groupe Videotron Ltee, owner of the second-largest cable television operator in Canada and majority owner of Optel, the source said.

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