Yesterday’s news is that Clear Channel Outdoors (owned 90% by iHeart) has sold some outdoor billboards in the US for in excess of $400 million, and another similar deal may happen today. CCO owns a lot of tangible assets, which means lenders give the subsidiary better interest rates.<\/p>\n
The lenders are getting unhappy at the way iHeart has been using CCO as a piggy bank. This deal is essentially selling the collateral out from under the lenders. Naive investors might buy stock in Clear Channel without understanding what the stock isn’t.<\/p>\n
Billboard companies are not regulated by the FCC and not subject to foreign ownership rules. Much of the debt is probably owned by European banks. My guess is iHeart will sell off their US assets and trade their equity in the remaining company (they own a lot of bus stop shelters in Europe) for debt relief.<\/p>\n
Cleaning up the situation with CCO might make it easier to launch an iHeart IPO, for instance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday’s news is that Clear Channel Outdoors (owned 90% by iHeart) has sold some outdoor billboards in the US for in excess of $400 million, and another similar deal may happen today. CCO owns a lot of tangible assets, which … Continue reading