Banks wrapped up the syndication of roughly $52 billion of debt to fund Paramount Skydance Corp’s acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, locking in long-term financing at a hefty cost for the US media giant.

The company sold $30 billion of US dollar investment-grade debt, $12.4 billion-equivalent of junk bonds and $9.46 billion of loans, according to people familiar with the matter. The transaction’s longest-dated security — a blue-chip note maturing in 2066 — will pay investors a yield of almost 9%.

The offering had been held up for months as lawsuits prevented Paramount from completing its Warner deal sooner. Borrowing this week instead of three months ago will cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars a year in extra interest, as growing fears about global inflation have lifted borrowing rates.

While the yield premium investors will receive over Treasuries on the firm’s eight-part high-grade bonds narrowed during syndication, three of the notes will yield more than 8%. Just two US investment-grade notes were issued this year with such yields, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Apollo Global Management, Bank of America Corp and Citigroup led the offering.

Paramount sold $11.4 billion of US dollar junk bonds in three parts as well as a €885 million ($1 billion) euro-denominated note due in five years, one of the people said.

Pricing on the firm’s junk-bond offering remained largely in line with initial discussions. A 10-year US dollar note was issued at a yield of about 9.13%, while a five-year euro-denominated note priced at 7%, a separate person said.

Paramount earlier shelved an eight-year euro-denominated high-yield security. On Tuesday, it trimmed the size of the investment-grade note sale by $2 billion, raising the loan portion of the funding by the same amount.

The company raised $8.5 billion through a US dollar loan, versus initial plans of $6.5 billion, and €850 million ($963 million) through a euro-denominated security. The loans were sold at an interest rate of 2.75 percentage points above respective benchmarks.

The bonds and loans were initially expected to be sold around midyear, but the financing was put on hold after the Warner deal faced litigation until two settlements last week cleared the way for the offering.

Paramount agreed to buy Warner in a $110 billion transaction to create one of the world’s largest entertainment empires after beating out Netflix in a bidding war. Apollo, Bank of America and Citigroup provided the initial financing for the Warner acquisition before selling down the debt to a group of 18 banks.

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