Billionaires walk from backing loan, page-5

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"Ten's three billionaire shareholders have moved away from guaranteeing the television company's new $250 million loan following negotiations with the struggling free-to-air broadcaster.
Sources said Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon told Ten late on Friday evening they will not guarantee the new loan, leaving Ten looking for alternative avenues to secure funding needed to keep the company afloat.
Support from the third shareholder, James Packer, has always been unlikely. Mr Packer looked to sell his stake in the company earlier this year and is believed to have told the company a number of weeks ago he would no longer be a guarantor.
An announcement is expected as early as Tuesday, following Monday's public holiday.

A Ten spokesman declined to comment.

It's understood Ten's newly appointed advisors, Moelis & Co, lead by head of corporate finance Chris Wyke, remain confident of securing the refinancing and have been talking with a number of parties.
Ten is seeking a new $250 million loan to replace its existing $200 million facility, which is guaranteed by the three billionaires. The existing loan from Commonwealth Bank of Australia expires and needs to be repaid in December.
The network's future now hangs on Moelis & Co's ability to find alternative financing options and its renegotiation of onerous output deals with US studios 21st Century Fox and CBS, believed to be worth more than $150 million per year.
The CBA loan is the key to keeping Ten afloat - without its billionaire backers behind a new $250 million credit guarantee, banks are unlikely to lend to the troubled broadcaster and it could go into receivership.

The company told shareholders in April that the new loan was required as a result of "expected trading performance and volatility within the free-to-air advertising market". It unveiled reported a $232.2 million loss for the first half of the 2017 financial year, which included a $214.5 million writedown on the value of its television licence, and announced another cost cutting program.
Mr Murdoch and Mr Gordon had hired debt restructuring specialists Fort Street, headed by special situations banker Jim McKnight to go over the numbers to try and work out a deal, but it's understood the pair will not put more of their own money on the line.
CBA, which has lined up PPB should it need to appoint a receiver, committed to its initial loan with Ten because of the guarantee given by Mr Packer, Mr Murdoch and Mr Gordon.
It's believed Ten has made progress on its renegotiations with CBS and Fox, but a deal that works for the free-to-air broadcaster remains some time off.

Output contracts for US shows force the networks to purchase a list of content irrespective of its performance locally, and some have been loss-making in recent times.
The value of US content has diminished significantly in recent years for a number of reasons, including viewing habits, the impact of subscription video on-demand services such as Netflix and Stan, which is 50-50 owned by Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media, publisher of The Australian Financial Review, and piracy.
Mr Gordon is Ten's largest shareholder with 15 per cent and Mr Murdoch owns 7.7 per cent (News Corp, of which Murdoch is co-chair, via Foxtel, has another 13.9 per cent). UBS is understood to be working for Mr Packer, who had shopped around his 7.7 per cent stake in Ten, with few interested buyers."


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