Oak Hill Closes on $1.1 Billion Eight-Station Deal With News Corp.

by TVB Staff | July 17, 2008

Oak Hill Partners, a private equity concern in New York, has closed on eight stations it bought from News Corp. for $1.1 billion.

The stations, all Fox affiliates, include KDVR-TV in Denver, KSTU-TV in Salt Lake City, KTVI-TV in St. Louis, WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Ala.; WDAF-TV in Kansas City, Mo.; WGHP-TV in Greensboro, N.C.; WITI-TV in Milwaukee, and WJW-TV in Cleveland. The group will be managed by Oak Hill’s Local TV division, formed in January, 2007 after the firm acquired nine stations from The New York Times Co.

Oak Hill first cut the deal to buy the stations last year. It was advised by Deutsche Bank, Dow Lohnes PLLC and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. A total of $765 million in debt financing was provided by affiliates of Deutsche Bank, UBS, Bank of America and BNP Paribas. Geolo Capital, a PE off-shoot of the John A. Pritzker family, is also a minority investor. Geolo specializes in travel and leisure, hospitality, and entertainment focused investments.

Oak Hill has more than $26 billion from various sources invested across assets ranging from TV stations to aircraft leasing, truck stops, broadband provision, cancer treatment centers, fruit juice, phone companies, banks and snow ski gear.