Media General Management Discusses Q2 2012 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

Our speakers today are Marshall Morton, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Jim Woodward, Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Let me now turn the presentation over to Marshall.

Marshall N. Morton

Thank you, Lou Anne, and good morning, everyone. The second quarter 2012 was a monumental change for Media General as we transformed the company into a pure-play television broadcaster. We also refinanced our bank debt, which have been due in March of 2013 and extended its maturity to 2020.

On May 17, we announced the new financing arrangement with Berkshire Hathaway, which provided Media General with a $400 million term loan and a $45 million revolving credit line. On May 24, we closed on the new financing. The funding on the new term loan and an initial drawing of the revolving credit facility resulted in cash proceeds to the company of approximately $393 million. These proceeds were immediately used to fully repay all amounts outstanding under the existing credit facility, pay fees and expenses related to the financing and fund working capital requirements.

It probably goes without saying that we're extremely pleased to enter into a new financing partnership with Berkshire Hathaway, a highly respected organization in everyone's book. Our new term loan addresses our long-term capital needs and provides significant financial and operating flexibility.

In conjunction with the financing, Berkshire Hathaway received penny warrants for approximately 4.6 million Class A shares. We're pleased that they will also be a major equity shareholder.

Also on May 17, we announced the sale of virtually all of our newspapers to a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, World Media Enterprises, for $142 million in cash, subject to normal adjustments. We completed this sale on June 25.

When we began exploring the sale of our newspapers, we initially expected multiple transactions. To have achieved the single significant transaction so soon accelerated our transformation to a pure-play TV broadcaster and freed up significant management time that would otherwise have been devoted to the completion of several transactions.

« First ‹ Previous 1 2 3 Next › Last »