Barclays Refuse To Sell Off Endemol Loans Debt

Fri, 27 Jun 2008

Barclays Capital has refused to join a group of banks that sold off the loans at a bargain price used to fund the buyout of Big Brother producer Endemol.

A host of banks came forward to provide financing for the €2.6bn (£2bn) takeover led by the company's Dutch founder Jon De Mol before the credit crunch began to take its toll on the UK economy last year.

As a result, the value of the loans has fallen significantly and the backers have been unable to sell them on at anything close to a figure that reflects their face value.

Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs and four other banks including Royal Bank of Scotland sold €1.1bn of the debt for as little as 70 cents on the dollar.

But Barclays, the UK's third largest bank, has avoided writing down loans to companies that it says are "performing well."

Barclays spokesman Will Bowen and Goldman spokeswoman Rebecca Nelson declined to comment on the Endemol loans .

The ninth series of Big Brother, launched by Endemol earlier this month in the UK, attracted just 5.2m viewers - a 26 per cent decline from its 2006 show launch, adding to the banks’ woes.
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