18 Jun 2013

Positive future for MediaWorks - receivers

6:40 am on 18 June 2013

The receivers for MediaWorks say the company has a positive future under the proposed new owners now that debt has been cut by more than $600 million.

Banks are seizing control of the company after they failed to reach a financing deal with its previous owner, Ironbridge Capital.

Westpac, Rabobank and the RBS Group appointed KordaMentha on Monday to oversee the receivership of the company, which owns radio and TV stations, including TV3.

The new company will be chaired by professional director Rod McGeoch with television producer Julie Christie also on the board. Other directors will be announced soon.

Under a new capital structure, the company's debt will fall from more than $700 million to less than $100 million.

It means Ironbridge loses its entire investment while the bankers swap the debt to equity.

KordaMentha partner Michael Stiassny said the purchase price is confidential and there are unlikely to be other interested buyers.

"The senior debt holders have got a significant amount involved in this company. They can pay a price that they think is reasonable, and it may be quite significant in light of the fact that they've already got so much debt.

"So it will be unlikely, but we are here to see if there's anyone around."

Mr Stiassny said staff will keep their jobs and suppliers will continue to be paid under a business-as-usual arrangement.

He said the receivership is a mechanism to transfer the business to a new ownership and KordaMentha will keep RadioWorks and TV Works as they are during the transfer.

"In any receivership, our obligation if we can is to sell the business. In this case we're selling the business to an entity which happens to have shareholders who are the funders in this case."

He said KordaMentha's job is to get Mediaworks across a bridge to the new company which will run it and report to the banks, who are the owners.

Ironbridge, which bought Mediaworks in 2007 for $700 million, said it informed investors last year that MediaWorks was unlikely to generate a return.

It said the difficulties that it experienced in the investment have been outweighed by strong cash returns generated by other Ironbridge investments.