June 13 (Bloomberg) -- Banks led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. plan to sell loans used in the leveraged buyout of Endemol NV, the Dutch television producer of ``Big Brother,'' for as little as 72.5 cents on the dollar, said four people with knowledge of the deal.

The lenders are offering 2.2 billion euros ($3.4 billion) of senior loans that financed the 2.6 billion-euro acquisition to investors, according to the people who declined to be identified because the information isn't public. The amount that will be sold hasn't been determined.

The price is more than 19 cents on the dollar below the average high-yield, high-risk loan, and comes amid a decline in the ratings for ``Big Brother,'' a show that films strangers living together in a house isolated from the outside world. Banks cut the backlog of LBO loans made before the subprime mortgage market collapsed and credit markets seized up in August to less than $100 billion from $350 billion by offering discounts.

``A company with loans priced below 90 cents on the dollar used to be considered distressed,'' said Eric Tutterow, a managing director at Fitch Ratings in Chicago. ``Banks have been very aggressive in selling large blocks of loans at a discount.''

Dutch billionaire John De Mol, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Milan-based Mediaset SpA and the private-equity unit of New York-based Goldman Sachs bought 75 percent of Hilversum, Netherlands-based Endemol in May 2007. Buyout firms borrow about two-thirds of the money needed for acquisitions and underwriters earn fees for arranging the financing.

`Deal or No Deal'

ABN Amro Holding NV, Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse Group, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. joined Goldman Sachs in underwriting the deal. Some lenders may hold out for a higher price for their share of the debt, the people said.

``Some banks may take the pain now and write down the exposure, sell it and get some pressure off their balance sheets,'' said Gunnar Stangl, a strategist at Dresdner Kleinwort in Frankfurt. ``Others are fine with the exposure, and would rather not sell at distressed levels.''

High-yield loan prices overall have fallen to an average of 91.9 cents on the dollar from more than 100 cents a year ago, according to Standard & Poor's.

Officials at the banks declined to comment. Endemol spokesman Peter Krenn said management is supporting the sale of the debt. Endemol, which produces ``Big Brother'' programs in the U.S., U.K. and 17 other countries, as well as ``Deal or No Deal'' and ``Extreme Makeover,'' doesn't disclose its finances, he said.

`Coming to the End'

Big Brother's ninth series in the U.K. began this month with 5.2 million viewers watching the opening episode, a 26 percent decline from 2006, according to figures published in the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper.

``The show is coming to the end of its life,'' said Alex Moss, head of high-yield bonds and leveraged loans at Insight Investment Management in London, who oversees 1 billion euros of assets and was approached to buy the debt. He declined to say whether he will participate in the deal.

The Endemol debt, which isn't publicly rated, includes senior loans paying interest at 240 basis points and 275 basis points more than the euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, a benchmark lending rate. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. High-yield, high-risk, or leveraged loans, are rated below Baa3 by Moody's Investors Service and BBB- by S&P.

Banks have sold debt for LBOs including Chrysler LLC for as low as 63 cents on the dollar. New York-based Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG of Frankfurt and other lenders still need to sell loans and bonds for the $17.9 billion acquisition of San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications Inc. and C$52 billion ($51.1 billion) buyout of Canadian phone company BCE Inc.

To contact the reporters on this story: Pierre Paulden in New York at ppaulden@bloomberg.netCecile Gutscher in London at cgutscher@bloomberg.net, and

Last Updated: June 13, 2008 11:16 EDT