iHeartMedia Offers Preliminary First-Quarter Financial Results, Update on Debt Woes

Preliminary Numbers

As part of an SEC filing of supplements to its debt swap proposals, iHEARTMEDIA released a preliminary first-quarter earnings report that shows consolidated revenue off 2.4% to $1.329 billion and consolidated operating income dropping 72.9% to $114 million, but the numbers were skewed by the previous year's inclusion of $278.3 million from the sale of some outdoor assets and 2017's included a charge of $12.8 million involving foreign exchange rate changes. Without those charges, revenue would have increased 1.6%.

First quarter will 'include disclosure indicating there will be substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of 12 months following the date the first quarter 2017' ...

The statement also noted that the company, as of MARCH 31st, had $365 million of cash on its balance sheet, $200.6 million held by subsidiary CLEAR CHANNEL OUTDOOR HOLDINGS. The company said that its current operating plan indicates "we will continue to incur net losses and generate negative cash flows from operating activities given iHEARTCOMMUNICATIONS’ indebtedness and related interest expense."

During first quarter, the company spent $570.4 million on debt payments and anticipates having about $1.7 billion of cash interest payment obligations for full year 2017; $316.5 million of debt will mature in 2017, $324.2 million in 2018, and $8.4 billion in 2019.  The company's management anticipates that the final financial statement for first quarter will "include disclosure indicating there will be substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of 12 months following the date the first quarter 2017 financial statements are issued as a result of uncertainty around our ability to refinance or extend the maturity of our receivables based credit facility, to achieve our forecasted results, and to achieve sufficient cash interest savings from the pending Exchange Offers and Term Loan Offers."

The numbers may change when the final version of the financial statement is released. 

« see more Net News