Chase, BZW Lead $750M Iridium Loan

Chase Securities Inc. co-arranged a $750 million credit facility for Iridium LLC, an international joint venture aimed at developing a worldwide wireless telecommunication system.

The credit facility, co-arranged by BZW and the unit of Chase Manhattan Corp., is expected to be replaced later this year with a longer term $2.6 billion facility.

Investors in Iridium LLC include Bell Canada, Cable and Wireless PLC, DDI Corp., Korea Mobile Telecom, Lockheed-Martin Corp., Motorola Inc., Raytheon Co., Sprint Corp., and Societa Finanziaria Telefonica Per Azioni.

The shareholder group has already provided more than $1.9 billion in capital to Iridium LLC.

The addition of this $750 million in financing, the first external funds raised by the company to date, brings the total committed funds to the project to more than $2.65 billion.

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