Charter Communications continued to round out its new slate of directors Tuesday, naming David Merritt to the board.
Merritt has been a member of Charter's board of directors since 2003. His appointment puts Charter's board at 10 members, one short of the 11 board seats the company said it would have upon emergence. Merritt, currently managing director of BC Partners, a financial advisory firm, will also serve on the board's Audit Committee.
"Dave's financial expertise, discipline and leadership skills complement the broad range experience possessed by our other Board members," Charter CEO and board member Neil Smit said in a statement.
Charter's board is chaired by Apollo Management partner Eric Zinterhoferand in addition to Merritt includes founder and former chairman and CEO of telecommunications equipment pioneer Octel Inc. Robert Cohn; Vulcan Capital president W. Lance Conn; Apollo Management principal Darren Glatt, Oaktree Capital Management president Bruce Karsh; Columbia Capital executive John Markley, Jr.; Vulcan executive vice president of legal and general counsel Bill McGrath; Smit; and Vulcan executive vice president of investment management Christopher Temple.
Charter also released some preliminary information regarding its new stock. Charter expects to begin trading on the NASDAQ global market exchange no sooner than Jan. 14 - 45 days after it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In the SEC filing, Charter said it plans to issue about 111.99 million shares of common stock (109.7 million Class A shares and 2.2 million Class B shares); 5.5 million shares of payment in kind preferred stock; 4.7 million warrants to purchase Class A stock (exercisable at $19.80 per share) to former chairman Paul Allen; 6.4 million warrants to purchase common stock for certain bond holders (exercisable at $46.86 per share) and 1.3 million warrants to purchase common stock for other noteholders (exercisable at $51.28 per share)
Charter has not yet determined at what price its new shares would be valued, but in an earlier filing had estimated that stock to be issued through an employee stock ownership plan would be worth $19.37 per share.
That, however, could be too low. Charter has been trading on a when-issued basis under the symbol "CCMMV" since Dec. 3, and has ranged in value from $35 per share to $39.75 per share. The stock was trading at $35 (unchanged) in early afternoon trading Wednesday.
