Feb 9 (Reuters) – U.S. manager Philip Falcone’s
Harbinger hedge fund is paying a 15 percent interest rate for a
$190 million loan, almost triple what the riskiest corporate
borrowers pay, Bloomberg said, citing two people with knowledge
of the loan.

Falcone’s fund, which declined 47 percent in 2011, got $160
million from Jefferies Group after fees. The loan
matures on Oct. 31, the agency said.

The premium Falcone’s hedge fund must pay to borrow money
shows how risky investors view his outsized bet on start-up
wireless broadband company LightSquared Inc, Bloomberg said.

His main Harbinger Capital Partners Master Fund I has more
than 60 percent of its assets invested in LightSquared.

In contrast, junk-rated companies paid 5.15 percentage
points more than the three-month London interbank offered rate
(LIBOR) at the end of January, according to Standard & Poor’s
Leveraged Commentary & Data, the news agency said.

The billionaire trader, who soared to fame on a bet against
sub-prime mortgages in 2007, has now crashed to earth by betting
that LightSquared could soon bring its services to rural
America.

Spokesmen for Harbinger and Jefferies declined to comment to
Bloomberg. Both the companies could not immediately be reached
for comment by Reuters.