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Network Ten chief executive Paul Anderson. Jessica Hromas

• by
  
• Sarah Thompson
  
• Anthony Macdonald
  
• Joyce Moullakis

It's funny that the worse a company looks, the more advisers it attracts.

And we doubt they ever turn up to help out of the goodness of their hearts.

Street Talk can reveal Ten Network's board met on Thursday. No doubt one of the topics of the moment would have been the company's perilous debt position, with an army of advisers offering plenty of direction.

Firstly, there's McKinsey, who've created the free-to-air broadcaster's turnaround plan - former McKinsey consultant Ivan Yu was recently appointed Ten chief transformation officer.


There's Gilbert + Tobin, which is providing legal advice and has engaged KordaMentha to advise on restructuring.


And then there's Citi, Ten's go-to investment bank.

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which has a $200 million loan on the hook with Ten expiring in December, has PPB Advisory on the hook should it need to appoint a receiver, and billionaire guarantors of that loan, Bruce Gordon, Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer, have Fort Street Advisers' special situations banker Jim McKnight, working away, both revealed by this column.

But, like a series of Masterchef or Survivor, the list goes on.

Street Talk can reveal Moelis & Co has been drafted in to provide further financial advice to Ten, with head of corporate finance Chris Wyke leading the charge.


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.

There are three key things Ten needs in order convince its billionaire trio of shareholders to back a new loan - its transformation program, renegotiation of material programming contracts and cuts to broadcast licence fees.

Gordon is Ten's largest shareholder with 15 per cent and 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 Packer, who had shopped around his 7.7 per cent stake in Ten, with few interested buyers.

As the Financial Review revealed, the government has announced significant cuts to licence fees and Ten is looking to significantly reduce its massive US output deals - forcing them to buy a list of content regardless of its ratings performance - with CBS and 21st Century Fox, of which Murdoch is executive chairman. Ten executives, including CEO Paul Anderson, were in the US last week for Los Angeles Screenings



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