The Federal Communications Commission could vote as early astoday on a plan that would give a regulatory green-light to an $8.2 billion private buyout of the Tribune Co.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Wednesday he has proposed a plan to the commission?s four other members that would allow Tribune to own both a newspaper and a broadcast station in five U.S. markets until the commission votes on a permanent rule for such combinations.
Company officials insist its leveraged employee buyout is a done deal. That deal foresees retaining its major media properties.
“Our going-private transaction is on track, and the financing for it is fully committed,” is Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman?s customary response to inquiries about the $34-per-share, employee stock ownership deal. “We anticipate closing the transaction in the fourth quarter, following FCC approval, and expect to be in full compliance with our credit agreements.”
The buyout is led by Chicago real estate investor Sam Zell, who said in a statement that the current credit crisis had not derailed the deal.
The deal looks to tap an estimated $200 million-a-year S-Corporation tax exemption for 2007 and avoid an 8 percent premium for stockholders in 2008.
Analysts such as Gimme Credit?s Dave Novosel point to continued pressure on Tribune earnings and stock price, one rater?s downgrading of deal debt to junk bond status, and reported lender leeriness of the financing?s final $4.2 billion installment. That could prevent Tribune from completing its merger by Dec. 31 ? even if its declining earnings survives the fourth-quarter solvency test estimated at $1 billion.
Those factors, together with lenders? multibillion-dollar writedowns of mortgage-based assets and further erosion in newspaper circulation, is again fueling talk that The Sun ? a “non-core asset” ? will soon be on the block to ease Tribune?s $13 billion debt.
The Sun?s average weekday circulation fell to 232,749 for the six-month reporting period ending Sept. 30, down 1.4 percent from 236,172 during the same period in 2006, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The paper?s Sunday circulation during that time slipped 4.2 percent to 364,827 from 380,701.
Saul Sterman, an analyst with Cross-Profit, even parsed the recent migration of Zell-affiliated lawyers to a D.C. law firm representing the employee stock owner ship plan as a sign that further, local deals are impending for Tribune.
“This kind of theorizing has been around [for some time],” said Ted Venetoulis, spokesman for a local group that wants to buy The Sun.
The Associated Press and Staff Writer Aaron Cahall contributed to this story.
