| Add to balance / Manage account | User: | Log out |
| Prospect News home > News index > List of issuers C > Headlines for Charter Communications, Inc. > News item |
Charter to opportunistically approach upcoming debt maturities
By Jennifer Lanning Drey
Portland, Ore., Dec. 2 - Charter Communications, Inc. will continue to take an opportunistic approach toward addressing upcoming debt maturities, Eloise Schmitz, chief financial officer of the company, said Wednesday during a presentation at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Credit Conference in New York.
About 26% of Charter's debt matures in the next four years.
The company emerged from bankruptcy on Monday. It has extinguished about 40% of its pre-bankruptcy debt and cut interest costs by $830 million per year.
Additionally, Charter is now positioned to generate free cash flow going forward, Schmitz said.
On a pro forma basis, Charter's total leverage is about 5.5 times on a trailing-12-month basis, versus about 9.4 times at year-end 2008. The company has about $600 million of cash on hand pro forma for the restructuring.
"I think really what the new [capital] structure provides us is more financial flexibility, and as we think about the business, we can plan longer term because we're not as dependent on the capital markets. We can set longer-term strategies," Neil Smit, Charter's chief executive officer, said during the conference.
When asked about how the company plans to deploy cash in the future, Smit mentioned the possibilities of balance sheet opportunities, operational opportunities and mergers and acquisitions, but he said the decision would be a topic for future board conversations.
Charter Communications is a St. Louis-based provider of video services, high-speed internet services and telephone services to residential and commercial customers on a subscription basis.
© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere.
For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.