Turner Boosts Pathe’s Bid to Finance Merger : Entertainment: The Atlanta broadcasting firm licenses 1,000 films for 10 years. The fees could provide 15% of the cash needed for Pathe to combine with MGM/UA.

Pathe Communications’ long search for financing to complete its proposed $1.3-billion merger with MGM/UA Communications got a boost Sunday as Turner Broadcasting System Inc. announced licensing agreements with MGM that could provide 15% of the cash for the deal.

Pathe and Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting announced licensing agreements that will give Turner exclusive English-language television rights in the United States to broadcast nearly 1,000 films in the MGM/UA feature film library for 10 years. Turner would not disclose how much the deal was worth. Analysts have valued the film library at $200 million.

The agreement, which is contingent upon Pathe consummating a merger with MGM/UA, helps Pathe because the Beverly Hills-based company can use the license fees owed MGM/UA as an asset to secure funds to help pay for the deal.

The Pathe-MGM/UA merger, which is scheduled to close tomorrow, was delayed earlier this year because of financial problems. Pathe has already made non-refundable payments totaling $353 million to MGM/UA and its shareholders, and has also pledged $75 million in securities.

Separately, the British newspaper The Independent--citing an Italian source--reported Sunday that Pathe Co-President Giancarlo Parretti has come up with $750 million for the merger through the sale of assets in Europe. The assets were not identified.

Parretti has extensive holdings in Europe, including the British theater chain Cannon Cinemas. But there have been widespread doubts about whether Parretti’s overseas assets could bring enough cash to finance the merger with MGM/UA.

Asked about the Parretti report, Pathe spokesman Craig Parson said: “We have long maintained a policy of not commenting on the source of financing.”

Kitsie Riggall, a spokeswoman for Turner Broadcasting, said the licensing deal was one of the largest in the company’s history, far surpassing a $20-million, two-year licensing pact in December, 1989, for 1,000 Columbia Pictures films.

Turner said it will pay the first installation of the license fees today.

Financial experts said Pathe will probably need the entire amount owed by Turner Broadcasting to finance its $21.50-a-share purchase of MGM/UA.

Among the films covered by the licensing agreement are: the first 16 James Bond movies, “Rocky I” through “Rocky IV” and the Pink Panther films. The deal also includes contemporary movies such as “Rainman” and “A Fish Called Wanda,” as well as classic titles such as “West Side Story” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

In a prepared statement issued Sunday, R. E. Turner III, chairman and president of Turner Broadcasting, praised the MGM/UA film library as “the finest collection of contemporary and classic movies available for license in the market today.”

MGM/UA also will license to TBS SuperStation and another Turner broadcasting network the exclusive U.S. television rights to the Pink Panther cartoons, “The New Twilight Zone” and the science fiction series “Outer Limits.” Each license period is about 10 years.

The agreements do not include any future MGM/UA productions.

In another transaction, MGM/UA will license 300 films from the MGM/UA library for use on Turner Broadcasting’s recently announced satellite-delivered, English-language feed to Latin America. The service is scheduled to begin operation in 1991.