It is Deal or no Deal time for Endemol’s lenders. Six banks face potential losses of up to €400m ($618m) as they try to sell on debt taken on to finance the game show producer’s takeover last year just before leveraged finance markets seized up.

Early indications from the banks are that they will sell the loans at nearly a 20 per cent discount to face value, according to several people familiar with the process, after the credit crunch forced Endemol’s lenders to write down their exposure.