Clear Channel, PE Firms Ask To Keep Deal Suit In Texas Court

Mar.28, 2008 in Market Outlook

Clear Channel, Buyers Ask To Keep Suit In Texas State Court

Last Update: 3/28/2008 4:16:10 PM

By Shira Ovide and Heidi N. Moore
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Clear Channel Communications Inc. (CCU) and its proposed
private-equity buyers are seeking to keep a lawsuit over the sale in a Texas
state court, which they hope is friendly to their case.

Thursday, a group of banks being sued by Clear Channel and the private-equity
firms sought to move the lawsuit to a federal court. Clear Channel and the firms,
Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, filed two lawsuits this week, accusing
the banks of wrongfully reneging on commitments to fund the $19.5 billion sale of
the company.

Back-and-forth legal wrangling is expected in the litigation.

The banks request to move one of the lawsuits to a federal court is “nothing more
than an attempt to frustrate and stall any progress in the case,” Clear Channel
and the private-equity firms said in a court filing Friday in a Texas federal
court.

The bank group including Citigroup Inc. (C), Deutsche Bank AG (DB), Credit Suisse
Group (CS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) and
Wachovia Corp. (WB).

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