Charter Communications Inc. said Tuesday that it would seek to raise about
$1.75 billion in debt and equity to help pay down debt.
In a press release, Charter said it would issue $1.25 billion in class-A
common stock and another $500 million of convertible senior notes due 2006. No
date for either offering was given.
Given Charter's closing price of $23.86 per share Tuesday, the equity
offering would involve about 52.4 million shares. Charter had some 233.8 million
class-A common shares outstanding as of May 3.
UBS Warburg LLC high-yield cable analyst Aryeh Bourkoff said the offering
presents an opportunity for Charter to deleverage its balance sheet, dropping
its pro forma year-end debt levels from about 7.5 times cash flow to around 6.8
times.
'We knew they had an interest in getting an equity deal done in order to be
comfortably funded,' Bourkoff said. 'This clears up the entire funding picture.
Being fully funded now with a more conservative leverage profile should be good
for both the debt and the equity.'
