Friday, September 14, 2007

A Looming Bloodbath for First Data’s Banks

Yikes!
The WSJ.com's DealJournal directs our attention to Another Fine Mess.
(The title of the movie is Hardy's famous catchphrase 'Another fine mess'. However, in films Hardy always said 'Another nice mess'. The only known occasion 'Another fine mess' was apparently said by Ollie was in a radio programme the team made in the 1940s-Wikipedia).

Posted by Dana Similluca

Deal market watchers who were hoping that the First Data debt sale would set a positive tone for other pending leveraged buyouts may be in for a disappointment.

The word swirling among Wall Street traders is that the banks arranging the debt — Credit Suisse Group, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Group, HSBC, Lehman Brothers Holdings and Merrill Lynch — will hold on to as much as $19 billion in loans and bonds supporting the deal. For now, they plan to seek outside investors for only $5 billion in loans out of a $24 billion package they had hoped to syndicate....

Check out the comments for a feel of just how bad this is.