John Malone’s Liberty Media offered $250m in a senior secured loan on Tuesday as the first step in a “multi-stage” deal to rescue Sirius XM ahead of an imminent debt deadline, the companies said in a statement.

The deal offered by Liberty involves a debt for equity swap and leaves Mr Malone’s group, which controls DirecTV, the US satellite television company, with a “meaningful” stake in Sirius, one person familiar with the satellite radio group’s discussions said ahead of the deal.