Cablevision Systems, worried about the continued projected weakness in credit markets and the potential for higher interest rates, is hoping to take a $3.4 billion term loan set to mature in 2013 out another three years to 2016, Bloomberg reports.
"We've heard a fair amount of concern about the refinancing cliff in the 2011-2012 period," said Russell Solomon, a Moody's Investors Service credit analyst. "People are being very conservative and when they have a maturity coming up they are doing an amend and extend to push it out and smooth the refinancing risk."
The company's lenders, which include Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, held a call Wednesday to discuss the proposal.
Cablevision is the nation's fifth-largest cable company and also owns Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks basketball team and the daily newspaper Newsday. Last week, Cablevision reported an 11 percent revenue increase to $1.9 billion for the first quarter, up from $1.7 billion for the same period last year. Net income was about $20.2 million, which reversed a net loss of more than $31 million posted in the first quarter of 2008.
For more:
- See this Bloomberg article
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