Sprint and T-Mobile borrow money from parents for August wedding

The banks are lining up. When that happens, you know that the betrothed, in this case T-Mobile and Sprint, are serious about getting hitched.

Sprint has eight banks lined up to finance the deal. In the long run, the deal may be Sprint and T-Mobile’s only chance to be somebody in the U.S. cellular market, currently a two-horse race between AT&T and Verizon.

Reports say that Sprint’s parent, Japan’s Softbank, will make a bridge loan of $20 billion to Sprint to support the deal, and T-Mobile US will be getting $20 worth of debt restructuring.

In all, five banks are involved: JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group, Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup Inc.

The reports say Sprint also approached Japanese banks Mizuho Financial Group Inc, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.

T-Mobile and Sprint are trying to get all the money lined up so that they can announce a merger in August.

Softbank and T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom AG have agreed to broad terms of a deal. Sprint will pay about $40 per share for T-Mobile, which will value T-Mobile at about $32 billion.

T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom will pay roughly $1 billion if it tries to get out of the deal, while Sprint parent Softbank has agreed to pay $2 billion if the deal fails to pass regulatory muster.

Via: Reuters