US loan investors, hungry for more new-money paper, were served a Whopper-sized acquisition loan when fast food giant burger king and Canadian coffee and doughnut chain tim hortons agreed to join forces. The merger will create the world's third-largest quick-service restaurant company and, with a multi-billion institutional term loan component, the tie-up gives a boost to the M&A financing pipeline heading into September. Burger King lined up US$12.5bn in financing to fund the cash portion of the merger deal. The financing package includes US$9.5bn in committed debt from JP Morgan and Wells Fargo, as well as US$3bn of preferred equity capital from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
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