PROVIDENCE – Wachovia Corp. has sued Providence Equity Partners to get out of providing financing for the buyout firm’s revised $1.1 billion purchase of television stations from Clear Channel Communications Inc., Bloomberg News reported last week.
Wachovia, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, said Providence officials changed the terms of the accord without consent from the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank and voided the agreement, according to a lawsuit filed in state court in North Carolina Feb. 22. Providence and two of its investment banks, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS AG, agreed over the weekend to drop the price from $1.2 billion for the Clear Channel unit, a person briefed on the negotiations said.
The bank “is no longer obliged to provide any financing contemplated” for the acquisition, Wachovia’s lawyers said in the 15-page complaint against Providence and its Newport Television LLC unit.
San Antonio-based Clear Channel, the largest U.S. broadcaster, has been in talks with Providence about changing the terms of the sale of the 56 TV stations, located in cities such as Memphis, Tenn., and Syracuse, N.Y.
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