WARNER Bros Discovery increased an offer to buy back debt from investors by US$750 million as part of a plan to slash its debt and interest expenses.
The owner of CNN and HBO is repurchasing as much as US$2.5 billion of bonds, according to a Tuesday (May 14) release, after initially announcing a US$1.75 billion offer last week. The buyback is just the latest the media company has launched in the last year, including an offer in June and another in August.
The 2022 merger of AT&T’s WarnerMedia and Discovery left the firm with a relatively high amount of debt, with about US$42.6 billion still outstanding at the end of the first quarter. In March of 2022, AT&T and Discovery raised US$30 billion in the bond market for the combined businesses in one of the biggest corporate offerings ever. Since then, the company has been grappling with how to meet its financial targets.
Bloomberg reported last week that chief executive officer David Zaslav has ordered his lieutenants to find additional opportunities for cost-cutting in order to hit financial targets for the next couple of years. The New York-based media company also reported first-quarter sales and profit that fell short of analysts’ expectations.
Earlier this month, chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said on a conference call with investors that the primary use of the company’s free cash flow was cutting borrowings.
Warner Bros Discovery sold 1.5 billion euros (S$2.2 billion) in the European primary market on Tuesday.
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The latest tender offer spans bonds maturing between 2024 and 2054. The offer expires at 5 pm New York time on Jun 7, with the early tender premium ending on May 23. BLOOMBERG
