Ares is offering pricing with a five-handle margin on a $5bn-plus private term loan to finance Clearlake Capital’s acquisition of Dun & Bradstreet, according to 9fin sources.

The lender is leading an effort to club up a group of private credit firms to fund the loan, as Clearlake looks for term debt to fund the take-private and refinance a short-term bridge loan it received from banks to fund its winning bid for Dun & Bradstreet last month.

Meanwhile, Dun & Bradstreet today released a proxy filing revealing that it was conducting talks with another potential buyer during the go-shop period for its deal with Clearlake, noting that this other party ultimately declined to submit a rival bid before the end of that period last week.