NEW YORK (Jan 26): Wall Street lenders led by Bank of America Corp earlier in January offloaded US$100 million (RM425 million) of debt backing the buyout of Nielsen Holdings, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The banks sold the loan — part of a multibillion-dollar financing commitment that’s been stuck on their books for months — at a discount of 90 cents, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a private transaction. At least one other block trade took place in December, with banks selling US$359 million of Nielsen debt at 88.5 cents on the dollar, Bloomberg reported.

Global lenders are looking to take advantage of a rally in credit markets to whittle down tens of billions of hung bonds and loans that have accumulated on their balance sheets after a sharp repricing of risk assets upended underwriting pledges made early last year. Banks that financed the buyout of Citrix Systems Inc recently unloaded a portion of the debt package they still hold, while a group of banks led by UBS Group AG are preparing to offload loans tied to the buyout of Roper Technologies Inc.

A representative for Bank of America declined to comment on the loan sale.

Elliott Investment Management LP and Brookfield Asset Management Inc agreed to buy Nielsen in March in a deal valued at US$16 billion, including debt. The buyout closed in October and the lenders were forced to fund about US$8 billion of debt with their own balance sheets.

Since then, banks have chipped away at the Nielsen debt pile by selling a roughly US$2 billion bond and a US$2.1 billion leveraged loan in November of last year. Both deals sold at a steep discounts — about 92 cents on the dollar for the bond, and 89 cents for the loan.