The folks at Sinclair Broadcast Group have been well aware of the improving financing markets. There was some discussion of refi plans in the company’s Wednesday morning Wall Street conference call and – bingo! – just a few hours later some of it was underway.
“As for our balance sheet plans, our intent is to address the 2012 maturities shortly, due to TV’s improving fundamentals, the market appetite for broadcast paper and the strength in the high-yield markets. You should also expect us to very shortly launch a refinancing of our bank debt with the expectation of obtaining more flexibility and improved pricing,” said Sinclair Vice President of Corporate Finance and Treasurer Lucy Rutishauser in the conference call with analysts.
She wasn’t kidding about “shortly.” The announcement came out just a couple of hours later.
Sinclair Broadcast Group said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sinclair Television Group Inc., “intends to refinance a portion of, and amend certain terms of, its existing bank credit facility.”
Under the proposed terms, Sinclair would raise a $270.0 million tranche B term loan, maturing October 2015. The new term loan, along with cash and/or revolving credit, would be used to repay the existing $305.0 million tranche B term loan which also matures in October 2015. “The proposed terms would provide Sinclair more incremental loan capacity and more flexible terms,” the announcement noted.
