News: TEN Lachlan Murdoch makes fresh bid for Australia's Ten Network, page-29

It is a good question , the company didn't need to be debt free, just low enough debt that a bank would provide the facility without guarantors. TEN was paying over 10% on the 200m after guarantor fees and reports said CEO had a plan for turn around after renegotiated cbs and fox contracts which showed profitability in FY18 so banks could have been on board. Funding was managements job prior to appointing administrators rather what seemed like panicking