Central European Media European Enterprises (CME) has entered into a new €469 million loan agreement with BNP Paribas, guaranteed by Time Warner.
The funds will be used to refinance its most expensive debt, known as the 2017 PIK notes, with the nearest debt maturity being 2018.
The news comes as the company reported its Q4 and full year results. These showed by it made a net loss of $11,427,000 in the last three months of 2015, compared to one of $74,937,000 in the corresponding period in 2014.
Its full-year loss was almost halved from $227,428,000 to $114,901,000. Net revenues in Q4 2015 amounted to $195,552,000 ($216,196,000) and $605,841,000 ($680,793,000) in the full year.
OIBDA in Q4 was $56,203,000 ($55,094,000) and $122,815,000 ($95,446,000) for the full year.
Commenting on the results, Michael Del Nin, co-CEO, said “We’ve completed another strong year of financial performance, marked by impressive OIBDA growth, continuing margin expansion and a significant improvement in free cash flow generation. These results, combined with the refinancing transactions that we announced today, cap a remarkable two-year operational turnaround and put us on a clear path to reducing our leverage and enhancing value for all of our shareholders.”
Christoph Mainusch, co-CEO, added: “Due to targeted investments in programming, while reducing content costs overall, CME remained clear leaders in the midst of strong competition for audience share. We will continue bringing the best content to our audiences and improve our competitive position when it will benefit the reach we provide to clients.”