Must be the source material I'm working with....
"IHeart said to have a pact that will halt debt fight" by Laura J. Keller and Carol Ko Bloomberg News March 02, 2016
NEW YORK — The struggling radio broadcaster IHeartMedia Inc. has reached an agreement with a group of lenders that could forestall a fight over whether the company violated its debt agreement, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The creditors have agreed to temporarily hold off from filing a default notice claiming that IHeart breached its debt terms by shifting assets to its Broader Media LLC subsidiary last year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deal had not been made public. Under the so-called standstill agreement, the company will not move any additional assets, the people said. The arrangement, good through March 2, can be extended if both sides agree, they said.
The deal gives creditors an opportunity to propose a plan to address IHeart’s more than $12 billion in debt coming due in the next five years, the people said. The company (formerly Clear Channel Communications Inc.) has been weighing how to address its debt, a person with knowledge of the matter said last month.
The senior creditor group, represented by the investment bank PJT Partners Inc. and the law firm Jones Day, is working on a debt exchange that would push out maturities through at least 2020, the people said. The plan would call for Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners, the company’s private-equity owners, to swap their senior debt for new obligations due later, the people said.
It's a problem if Puerto Rico or Argentina wants to do it, but you know!!
“Our operating business is strong and therefore provides us with the flexibility to manage our capital structure in a prudent manner,” IHeart spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg said. “We’re always open to constructive dialogue with our lenders.”
A spokesman for Thomas H. Lee declined to comment. Representatives of Bain didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
IHeart, the largest US owner of radio stations, has $193 million in notes that mature in 2016, $230 million under a revolving credit line that’s due in 2017, more than $1 billion in obligations maturing in 2018, and $8.3 in bonds and term loans due in 2019.
No wonder there is so much crap on it when I'm in the car.
The broadcaster reported net income of $938.5 million in 2007, but in each year since then it has lost between $219.5 million and $4 billion, partly due to interest payments on its debt from the buyout by Bain and Thomas H. Lee, two Boston firms. Its net loss for 2015 was $737 million.
Oh, my heart is so broken for the ma$$ media corporate mouthpiece that somehow got took in a bad deal from private equity!
IHeart raised $566 million in January by selling billboards.
About those:
"Drive by a billboard, and there is a good chance its owner will know you were there and what you did afterward. Clear Channel Outdoor Americas will announce Monday that it has partnered with AT&T and others to track people’s travel patterns and behaviors via their mobile phones. By aggregating data from the companies, Clear Channel hopes to provide advertisers with detailed information to help them plan targeted ad campaigns. Clear Channel could, for instance, determine the average age and sex of people who see a billboard in Boston at a certain time and whether they subsequently visit a store. Its other partners are PlaceIQ, which uses location data from apps to gauge consumer behavior, and Placed, which pays consumers for the right to track them. The companies say all data are anonymous and aggregated; privacy advocates, however, have long raised questions about tracking mobile devices."
Of course, they will still have to collect the data from the phone and thus will know who it is; that will all be stored for government as well.
Think of that the next time you drive by a billboard on the highway, and then wave.
It has also been shifting assets into its Broader Media unit.
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