Wachovia Securities, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch are out with a $50 million add-on to Young Broadcasting's existing $275 million "B" loan. BNP Paribas is a documentation agent on the financing. The add-on is priced the same as the existing term loan at LIBOR plus 2 1/4%, but 101 soft call protection was added to both the add-on and the existing term loan. The credit also has a $20 million revolver.
Along with the add-on, Young is looking to adjust a covenant in its current bank agreement that requires the company to maintain a $35 million liquidity basket of cash. The company would like that number to be reduced to $10 million, James Morgan, cfo, said. He said the new facility will be used to improve liquidity.
Young last came to market a year ago, when those four banks amended a 2003 facility to buy back $246.89 million of 8 1/2% senior notes due 2008 (LMW, 4/15/2005). Morgan said the company went with these four because it was an add-on to the initial deal they led.
Based in New York, Young owns 10 television stations and the television representation firm, Adam Young. Standard & Poor's assigned a B- rating and 1 recovery rating to the add-on. The ratings agency says the B- reflects its significant debt it had about $833 million in debt outstanding as of Dec. 31 -- relative to its cash flow.