Redstone to Reduce All His Debt and Stakes in CBS & Viacom… Again.

Sumner Redstone has some bills coming up, and to help do so, he’s reducing his stakes in CBS and Viacom through a sale of stock, all while hoping to retain controlling interests in both companies. After the restructuring, Redstone’s National Amusements will still have 75% voting control in each company. The Dedham, Massachusetts-based National Amusements expects to raise some $600 million, selling shares of Viacom- which includes Paramount, MTV and Comedy Central media brands; and an additional $345 million through the sale of CBS shares.

National Amusements owns movie theaters in the U.S., U.K., Latin America and Russia.  It restructured $1.46 billion of borrowings in May, pushing the debt's maturity to Dec. 31, 2010 with certain payments due this year and next.

"As a result of our actions, National Amusements will be out of debt with its existing creditors and will still control its most important assets," Redstone said in a statement.

Redstone and National Amusements, among many, many others, ran into problems with its debt late last year as stocks tumbled and the credit markets seized.  The falling value of CBS and Viacom shares pushed the company into violation of its terms on $1.6 billion in borrowings.  Its creditors, led by Bank of America, forced the company to sell-off $233 million in Viacom and CBS nonvoting shares last October. At the time, Redstone vowed not to sell any more of its stake in the companies to pay off the debt.  Which is exactly what he’s doing now. 

Redstone has also sold his family’s controlling stakes in videogame maker Midway, and sold-off 600 of it’s movie screens domestically to raise cash in the past. 

Comments

[chumbawamba]

Haha, fuck that decrepit pre-cadaver.

I am Chumbawamba.