Nine talks to resume on Wednesday, CEO “quietly optimistic.”

By David Knox on October 16, 2012 / Filed Under News 6

Talks between Nine Entertainment’s warring factions will resume tomorrow, after the parties left the Sydney offices of law firm Gilbert and Tobin in mid-afternoon with no agreement over the media group’s $3.3 billion debt load.

AFR reports CEO David Gyngell told reporters he was “fighting hard to save a great business”.

Updated: AFR it has since reported lenders have agreed  to a deal to save the television, ticketing and digital group. It is understood second-tier lenders led by Goldman Sachs will receive about $100 million under the deal, which will see lenders convert their loans into equity in the company.

The Age reports he is ‘‘quietly optimistic.”

“I think we’ll have some sort of outcome to discuss”.

“It’s been a vigorous debate around valuation,” he said.

He told news reporters talks could “go well into the night but my wife is about to have a baby, so that’s the most important thing to me.”

Nine called the meeting this morning to get its lenders to agree to a deal that will see them share ownership of Nine with the majority stake going to senior lenders lead by US hedge funds Oaktree Capital and Apollo Global Management.

The morning session is understood to have been “heated”, sources close to the negotiations said. Another source described the negotiations as “long and hard”.

Directors are preparing to put the company into administration if lenders cannot agree on a solution to its $3.3 billion debt problem.

Failure to reach a deal will force Nine’s directors to pull the plug on the business, although it won’t force the television network itself off the air.

David Gyngell also confirmed he would remain with the company even if the board was forced to put Nine into administration.

Discussions are expected to continue on Wednesday.

Additional source:  The Australian

 

6 Comments »

  1. ElKabong October 17, 2012 at 2:13 pm -

    Maybe we should have a Telethon and raise money for Nine?

  2. Kenny October 17, 2012 at 1:32 pm -

    @Craig – They covered it at 4:30 and (in Sydney) again at 6pm, plus had it in their News Bar.
    ACA is no doubt holding that space for Mrs Gyngell’s (nee McKinnon) baby news.
    According to ABC at 1pm “discussions are ongoing”.

  3. camo2 October 17, 2012 at 9:42 am -

    love or hate the 9 Brand… the industry knows that if 9 was to fall over, it would have massive effect on the rest of the TV lanscape and not for good reasons… so it is so important for them to survive.. i would assume the NRL deal has a clause in it somewhere …as this isnt knew…and im sure it was talked about in great length while the contract negoiations was happening

  4. James October 16, 2012 at 6:51 pm -

    @Craig they did have a story on it in 9News and IMO dealt with it very professionally.

  5. Ann October 16, 2012 at 6:20 pm -

    They did cover it, interesting comment that their AFL, Cricket and League contracts could be ‘null and void’ if receivership takes place. What happens then?

  6. Craig October 16, 2012 at 5:39 pm -

    I just want to know if this will be covered by Nine news or ACA?

    I am surprised the above clips is on Nine MSN.

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