Primacom second restructuring
February 10, 2012
The owners of German cable company Primacom have been forced to inject another €20 million into the business and restructure its €300 million of debt for the second time in a year.
Primacom was taken over in January 2011 by its bank lenders including ING and fund managers Alcentra Group, Tennenbaum Capital and Avenue Capital following the insolvency of its parent, Primacom AG, in June 2010. This debt for equity swap was achieved through a court procedure at the High Court in London.
Lenders returned to the court in December 2011 after Primacom’s business, which supplies 1 million households in Germany with cable TV, failed to grow sufficiently, forcing lenders to restructure again.
The lenders injected the €20 million as new short term senior debt, which is expected to be converted into a three-year loan in due course, court documents show. The new funds will be used to back new investments in the cable network to boost growth.
In addition, €36.7 million of debt was shifted from the balance sheet of Primacom to its parent company Medfort. An additional €32.8 million of debt will be shifted in the same way if the owners are unable sell the business before the end of the year.