Blackstone and Providence exit placed on hold

The sale of minority stakes held by US buyout firms The Blackstone Group and Providence Equity partners in Freedom Communications, a US newspaper group, has been halted because banks have baulked at financing the deal due to the credit crisis and a poor outlook for print media.

Freedom had planned to pay more than $500m (€345m) to purchase about 45% of its equity back from the private equity pair.

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