SCA successfully refinance for 5 years

The Southern Cross Media Group (Southern Cross Austereo) has announced that it has finalised the refinancing of its current $765m debt facility, which will mature in March 2015.

The new facility comprises of a five year revolving $650m facility which will be used in conjunction with excess cash to repay the existing facilities, and a two year revolving $50m facility.

The $50m will be undrawn at this time, and will exist to provide flexibillity as opportunities or requirements arise.

The financial headroom for the new facilities will be a 3.5x Net Debt : EBITDA with an interest cover of 3.0x.

As is common with a debt facility of this size, it has been provided by five banks: ANZ, CBA, NAB, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and Mizuho Bank.

SCMG CFO, Stephen Kelly (pictured), commented:

“We are extremely pleased with the new facilities – the size, tenor and highly competitive terms of this transaction demonstrate the strong bank support that Southern Cross Austereo enjoys.

The transaction is reflective of the confidence of the banking community in our strong cash generation and earnings resilience and this has been reflected in the significantly improved commercial terms agreed to by the parties. We are delighted to have the continuing support of the existing three major Australian banks and Sumitomo, and welcome Mizuho into the syndicate.”

The refinancing will be formally completed on 13 January 2014.

Southern Cross Media Group (SXL) has had a bumpy ride on the ASX over the past month following the news of Kyle & Jackie O's departure, in intraday trade, the company was up slightly to $1.56.

The graph of the share performance over the past month is below: