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Home Front Economy | |
New York Times to Borrow Against Building | |
2008-12-09 | |
The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits. The company has retained Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate firm, to act as its agent to secure financing, either in the form of a mortgage or a sale-leaseback arrangement, said James M. Follo, the Times Company's chief financial officer. The Times Company owns 58 percent of the 52-story, 1.5 million-square-foot tower on Eighth Avenue, which was designed by the architect Renzo Piano, and completed last year. The developer Forest City Ratner owns the rest of the building. The Times Company's portion of the building is not currently mortgaged, and some investors have complained that the company has too much of its capital tied up in that real estate. The company has two revolving lines of credit, each with a ceiling of $400 million, roughly the amount outstanding on the two combined. One of those lines is set to expire in May, and finding a replacement would be difficult given the economic climate and the company's worsening finances. Analysts have said for months that selling or borrowing against assets would be the company's best option for averting a cash flow problem next year. Standard & Poor's recently lowered its credit rating on the Times Company below investment grade, and Moody's Investors Service has said it was considering a similar move. Times Company stock, which has lost more than half its value this year, closed on Friday at $7.64, down 30 cents.
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Posted by:Fred |
#18 Murdoch will end up making Pinch his bitch sometime in 09. Just watch. |
Posted by: Classical_Liberal 2008-12-09 13:53 |
#17 I love watching train wrecks in slo-mo! |
Posted by: gorb 2008-12-09 13:29 |
#16 But how would one get the smell out? |
Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-12-09 13:20 |
#15 The Dems should bail them out -- using their franking budget. |
Posted by: regular joe 2008-12-09 13:10 |
#14 Shareholder lawsuit. THose B shares will be forcibly converted. |
Posted by: OldSpook 2008-12-09 12:55 |
#13 The fact that they spent this kind of money on a new headquarters last year tells you how divorced from reality Pinch is. This money only gets them through May. What do they do for an encore? |
Posted by: Frozen Al 2008-12-09 12:06 |
#12 Junk Rating on their paper... |
Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-12-09 10:35 |
#11 Hopefully they default and the building is seized as collateral. |
Posted by: DarthVader 2008-12-09 09:50 |
#10 Fear not! The Democrats will bail them out with your tax money. Cause God forbid they use their own money. Why not send out a message that every good party member should have a subscription? Because even they know a losing proposition when they see it and have no interest in pouring 'their' money into a pit. |
Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-12-09 09:08 |
#9 Die, you bastards! |
Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-12-09 08:34 |
#8 well the family has lost a LOT of money. Heh |
Posted by: Frank G 2008-12-09 08:23 |
#7 No one can oust Pinchie except his own family. The publicly-traded shares are class A and are non-voting. The family owns class B shares which vote. |
Posted by: Steve White 2008-12-09 08:09 |
#6 Fear not! The Democrats will bail them out with your tax money. |
Posted by: DMFD 2008-12-09 07:01 |
#5 After seeing the Clintons sell the White House to the Chinese, little surprises me. |
Posted by: Besoeker 2008-12-09 06:14 |
#4 Not about the NYT, but close enough.I was walking the streets of Washington, the streets I grew up in, last night. I found myself in front of the Washington Post building again, looking up, this time not longingly. This time I laughed. Let the future begin. |
Posted by: Chuck 2008-12-09 05:06 |
#3 On the bright side, it is alleged that a conservative in Alabama now owns a large chunk of the Times, and could oust the Sulzburgs for their demolition of the Time's value -- and reputation. |
Posted by: OldSpook 2008-12-09 03:13 |
#2 Oh, this will end well. |
Posted by: Plastic Snoopy 2008-12-09 02:42 |
#1 Yeah. A junk bond now. Screw you NY Times. Ya punks. Hmm, what to do with the building.... Ponder. |
Posted by: newc 2008-12-09 01:55 |