Main Street may not be buying Dell PCs as robustly as it once did — but Wall Street bankers are lining up to help finance the $24 billion buyout of the tech firm, The Post has learned.
The buyout, led by private equity firm Silver Lake, has attracted a large number of lenders looking to participate in the roughly $15 billion financing package, sources said.
The deal is close to being finalized and could be announced next week.
Banks are said to be comfortable lending to PE firms like Silver Lake rather than Round Rock, Tex.-based Dell.
An exclusive report in these pages yesterday that revealed the mega-deal was about to take off helped drive Dell shares up more than 7 percent in pre-market trading — before they settled, closing up 3 percent, to $13.63.
Microsoft, which is hoping to gain a strategic foothold in the LBO, is aiming to contribute some $2 billion, which would be Wall Street’s largest LBO transaction in more than half a decade.
Dell founder Michael Dell, who owns a more than 15 percent stake in the company he founded out of his garage in 1984, is expected to boost his ownership in the deal.
The exact share price at which the deal might be struck is not clear, but sources told The Post that two weeks ago, dealmakers crafting the offer were hashing over prices ranging from $13 to $14 — a roughly 30 percent premium to the company’s share price before news of the planned leveraged buyout emerged in the press.
To be sure, the company’s stock has run up, and that price could be tweaked higher by the time the final bid rolls out.
The fact that word on the still-unfinished LBO had leaked out has irked the deal-makers, who had hoped to deliver a pop to shares upon the announcement, sources said.
Once it is made public next week, the LBO will be subject to a so-called go-shop period, which will grant any bidders a set amount of time to arrange a counteroffer.
Evercore Partners has been hired to explore alternate offers, according to reports.