Charter Files For Bankruptcy; Refinancing, New Capital To Total $3 Billion;
This story was written by David Kaplan.
As long expected, Charter Communications (NSDQ: CHTR) said it will file for bankruptcy protection, having struck an agreement with debt holders on a restructuring that will educe the company's debt by roughly $8 billion. The St. Louis cable operator's two subsidiaries, CCH I Holdings and Charter Communications Holdings, will pay interest payments totaling approximately $74 million of their outstanding senior notes that were due January 15, 2009. The payments will be made within the grace period. Charter also said that the refinancing and new capital as part of the restructuring will total $3 billion. Yesterday, Moody's Investors Service lowered Carter's corporate family rating down two steps to "Caa3"nine levels below investment gradeon anticipation of the bankruptcy filing.
By David Kaplan