Underwriters financing the buyout of US casino operator Harrah’s Entertainment have begun pricing the loans and structured them into tranches to make them easier to sell in an effort to generate demand for one of the largest leveraged loan packages to hit the market this year.

The $7.25bn (€4.9bn) term loan, which has been split into three smaller tranches by lead underwriters Bank of America and Deutsche Bank, is among the first large leveraged loans to be marketed since the strained but successful sales of some US buyout loans last November.