Legal eagle Leon Zwier is not the only person providing counsel to Oaktree Capital Management in its quest to buy Network Ten.
Street Talk can reveal the US debt giant has hired Credit Suisse to hold its hand through due diligence, as it prepares an indicative offer in time for next month's deadline.
Credit Suisse's role at Ten comes only a fortnight after the Swiss bank's equities desk sold Oaktree's 7 per cent stake in another free-to-air television broadcaster, Nine Entertainment Co. Oaktree was one of two distressed debt investors that took control of Nine in 2012 via debt-for-equity swap and retained a stake at the relisting in 2013.
Oaktree and Ten's other potential suitors have been told that the deadline for first round bids has been pushed out to late August, as this column first reported.
US studio CBS, New York hedge fund Anchorage Capital Group, and billionaires Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon are among the nine parties to sign non-disclosure agreements.
