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PPB to be appointed as TEN receivers

Insolvency specialist will be appointed as receivers for TEN.

Insolvency specialist PPB Advisory will be appointed as receivers for TEN, according to reports.

Current voluntary administrator KordaMentha will revert to a role of managing the network during this period.

Commonwealth Bank is the network’s major secured creditor with a $200 million loan guaranteed by shareholders Lachlan Murdoch, Bruce Gordon and James Packer.

The three shareholders are “on the hook” for $67 million each on the $200 million loan but have also invested, along with Gina Rinehart, a combined $600 million in a company worth $58 million in equity value.

Observers expect the network to survive with a change in ownership, potentially being acquired at a low entry point, but it remains unclear what staffing and programming would be directly impacted in the long term.

A receivership move will not effect TEN’s ability to keep broadcasting in the short term.

Earlier this week a 14-member committee was appointed including journalist Hugh Riminton, plus US network CBS, broadcaster FOX, production houses Endemol Shine and FremantleMedia, the Commonwealth Bank and the investment vehicles of major shareholders Bruce Gordon and Lachlan Murdoch – Birketu, Illyria.

Yesterday TEN welcomed the abolition of licence fees for the 2016- 17 financial year in the order of $22 million.

Source: The Australian

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