• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 7, 2014

Two of the country’s largest outdoor advertising companies, CBS Outdoor and Lamar Advertising Co., are raising hundreds of millions of dollars through private placement of notes, as well as new loans in the case of CBS Outdoor. The moves come as CBS Outdoor prepares for its spinoff from CBS Corp. as a publicly traded real estate investment trust, and Lamar also prepares to transform itself into an REIT.
 
CBS Outdoor plans to raise $800 million through an offering of senior unsecured bonds in a private placement available to institutional buyers, plus another $800 million through a term loan entered into by two of its subsidiaries. Private placement allows companies to raise money while avoiding certain regulatory issues.

Most of the proceeds of the $1.6 billion raised will be paid to CBS Corp. as part of the spinoff deal, with the rest used for CBS Outdoor’s own operations. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo are in charge of the debt financing. Although the planned REIT conversion is currently on hold, pending a decision by the IRS, CBS Corp. said it will go ahead with the IPO and spinoff of CBS Outdoor regardless.
 
Separately, Lamar Advertising Co. said it plans to raise about $510 million through a private placement of senior notes in its subsidiary, Lamar Media Corp. Most of the proceeds will be used to repay outstanding debts of around $502 million, borrowed through its senior credit facility, with the rest going to general corporate purposes.
 
Last week, Lamar said it was confident that its planned REIT conversion would be allowed to go forward, despite the fact that IRS still hasn’t made a ruling on the proposal .