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12.5% Senior Secured Notes due 2017
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2019
Debt Disclosure [Abstract]  
12.5% Senior Secured Notes due 2017

10. 12.5% Senior Secured Notes due 2017

On February 7, 2012 we closed our offering of $275 million in aggregate principal amount of our Notes, at an issue price of 97% of the principal amount. The Notes were offered solely by means of a private placement either to qualified institutional buyers in the United States pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act, or to certain persons outside the United States pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act. We used the net proceeds from the offering, together with some cash on hand, to repay and terminate the senior credit facility term loan, and to pay the transaction costs related to the offering. The Notes matured on April 15, 2017.  Because we did not have sufficient cash on hand and did not generate sufficient cash from operations or asset sales, we did not repay the Notes at their maturity, as a result of which there was an event of default under the Indenture on April 17, 2017 (being the payment date following the Saturday, April 15, 2017 maturity date).  

On May 8, 2017, the Company, and certain of its subsidiaries entered into a Forbearance Agreement with certain Noteholders, owning more than 75% of the principal amount of the outstanding Notes.  These Noteholders agreed to forbear from exercising any of their rights and remedies under the Indenture, with respect to certain defaults from the effective date of the Forbearance Agreement until the earliest to occur of (a) the occurrence of any event of termination and (b) May 31, 2017.  As part of the Forbearance Agreement, the Company agreed to make monthly interest payments of $2,864,583 on the Notes for the 30 day periods ending on May 15, 2017 and June 15, 2017, rather than on a semi-annual basis as required by the Indenture. The Company also agreed to pay a consent fee to these Noteholders equal to 0.35% of the principal amount of the Notes held by such parties and to pay the legal fees and financial advisor due diligence fees of these Noteholders.  The Forbearance Agreement expired and has not been extended.  As of the date of the filing of these financial statements, the Company had made all of the payments required to be made under the Forbearance Agreement and has continued to make monthly interest payments on the Notes on the 15th day of each month and continued to pay the monthly legal and financial advisor due diligence fees of these Noteholders.  

At September 30, 2019, there was $249.9 million in principal amount of Notes outstanding.  As a result, there has been and remains an event of default under the Indenture which gives the holders of our Notes the right to demand repayment of the Notes and, subject to the terms of the Indenture, to foreclose on our assets that serve as collateral for the Notes.  The collateral constitutes substantially all of our assets.

See Note 1 elsewhere in these financial statements for additional detail regarding our continued recapitalization and restructuring efforts and our failure to repay the Notes at maturity.

 

Interest

The Notes accrue interest at a rate of 12.5% per year. Since April 17, 2017, interest has been payable on demand. We have been paying interest monthly since that date. Additional interest will be payable at a rate of 2.00% per annum (the “Additional Interest”) on (i) the unpaid principal amount of the Notes plus (ii) any amount of Additional Interest payable but unpaid in any prior interest period, to be paid in cash, at our election, on any acceleration of the Notes and any redemption of the Notes; provided that no Additional Interest will be payable if, for the applicable fiscal period, either (a) we record positive consolidated station operating income for our television segment for the most recent twelve-month period ending either June 30 or December 31, or (b) our secured leverage ratio on a consolidated basis is less than 4.75 to 1.00.

Although our secured leverage ratio was greater than 4.75 to 1.00, we recorded positive consolidated station operating income for our television segment for the most recent twelve-month period ending June 30, 2019.    

Collateral and Ranking

The Notes and the guarantees are secured on a first-priority basis by a security interest in certain of the Company’s and the guarantors’ existing and future tangible and intangible assets (other than Excluded Assets (as defined in the Indenture)), which constitutes substantially all of the Company’s assets. The Notes and the guarantees are structurally subordinated to the obligations of our non-guarantor subsidiaries. The Notes and guarantees are senior to all of the Company’s and the guarantors’ existing and future unsecured indebtedness to the extent of the value of the collateral.  

The Indenture permits us, under specified circumstances, to incur additional debt; however, the occurrence and continuance of the Voting Rights Triggering Event (as defined in Note 11 of the Notes to the Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements) currently prevents us from incurring any such additional debt.

The Notes are senior secured obligations of the Company that rank equally with all of our existing and future senior indebtedness and senior to all of our existing and future subordinated indebtedness. Subject to certain exceptions, the Notes are fully and unconditionally guaranteed by each of our existing wholly owned domestic subsidiaries (which excludes (i) our existing and future subsidiaries formed in Puerto Rico (the “Puerto Rican Subsidiaries”), (ii) our future subsidiaries formed under the laws of foreign jurisdictions and (iii) our existing and future subsidiaries, whether domestic or foreign, of the Puerto Rican Subsidiaries or foreign subsidiaries) and our other domestic subsidiaries that guarantee certain of our other debt. The Notes and guarantees are structurally subordinated to all existing and future liabilities (including trade payables) of our non-guarantor subsidiaries.

Covenants and Other Matters

The Indenture contains covenants that, among other things, limit our ability and the ability of the guarantors to:

 

incur or guarantee additional indebtedness;

 

pay dividends or make other distributions, repurchase or redeem our capital stock and make certain restricted investments and make other restricted payments;

 

sell assets;

 

incur liens;

 

enter into transactions with affiliates;

 

enter into sale and leaseback transactions;

 

alter the businesses we conduct;

 

enter into agreements restricting our subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends, make loans and sell assets to the Company and other restricted subsidiaries;

 

enter into change of control transactions;

 

manage our FCC licenses and broadcast license subsidiaries; and

 

consolidate, merge or sell all or substantially all of our assets.  

As a result of our failure to pay the Notes at maturity, an event of default under the Indenture has occurred and is continuing.