Playboy Scores $180 Million Loan for Bid to Go Private

NEW YORK — Global securities and investment banking group Jefferies is leading a $180 million term loan backing a bid by founder Hugh Hefner to take Playboy private, banking sources told Reuters.

The launch date for the term loan has not yet been determined, said the sources, who declined to be identified because the deal is private.

Icon Acquisition Holdings LP, which Hefner controls, plans to buy Playboy's shares along with Rizvi Traverse Management LLC. Playboy has about $115 million in debt.

The transaction values the company at about $207 million, or $6.15 a share.

Shares of Playboy rose 17 percent on Monday following the deal's announcement, to $6.09 a share. They were unchanged in Tuesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Hefner owns about 70 percent of Playboy's Class A common stock and 28 percent of its Class B stock.

On his Twitter page today Hefner tweeted, "The three great inventions of civilization are fire, the wheel and Playboy."

Playboy has been publicly traded since 1971. It was founded by Hefner in 1953 with $600.

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