New York Times intends to pay back $250 million loan 3 years ahead of schedule
By APMonday, October 4, 2010
New York Times to repay Carlos Slim loan early
NEW YORK — The New York Times Co. intends to pay back a $250 million loan from billionaire Carlos Slim in 2012, three years ahead of schedule, a company spokesman said Monday.
The company received the investment from Slim, the world’s richest man, in 2009 by agreeing to pay an abnormally high interest rate of 14 percent in addition to giving him potentially valuable stock warrants.
Company spokesman Robert Christie said the company will continue to evaluate the loan as it gets closer to 2012.
The Times said in a report Sunday that Slim owns one of the largest individual stakes in the company outside of the controlling Sulzberger family. His January 2009 loan helped the company weather the economic downturn that sent advertising sales lower across the newspaper industry.
In the past two years the company has reduced is debt to $670 billion from $1.1 billion, according to Christie.
In July, the Times Co. posted a revenue gain for the first time since 2007, as a jump in digital ad sales outweighed a decline in print. The company’s overall revenue climbed 1 percent in the second quarter.
Shares of the company slipped 10 cents to $7.75 Monday.
