NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 4, 2004--GE Commercial Finance's Global Media & Communications business announced that it has co-arranged $36 million in senior secured financing for American Consolidated Media, Inc., a Texas-based community newspaper publisher. GE provided $18 million of the facility, was appointed Administrative Agent, and served as Co-Arranger with CIT's Communications and Media Finance group, a unit of CIT Group Inc. (NYSE:CIT), which also provided $18 million.
Based in Dallas, Texas, American Consolidated Media, Inc. publishes 34 community newspapers and shopping publications in 29 Texas markets. Jeremy L. Halbreich, former President and General Manager of The Dallas Morning News, formed the company in 1998 and is currently Chairman, President, and CEO.
American Consolidated Media will use the financing to refinance existing debt and to fund the acquisition of Valley Media, a publisher of five Rio Grande Valley shopper and community newspaper publications. As part of the transaction, Halyard Capital invested $10 million in new convertible preferred equity in the company and joins existing investors Arena Capital Fund, LP and BancBoston Ventures. The transaction closed on July 29, 2004.
"This financing will support a very significant increase in the operating scale of our company," said Mr. Halbreich. "The combination of GE Commercial Finance Global Media & Communications and CIT brought a keen perception of our strategic goals and a commitment to devise a structure that would both fund our acquisition, as well as improve our longer term capital costs."
"Our group knows the middle-market publishing sector well and appreciates its attractive asset characteristics - a knowledge base that gave considerable support to our effort to design an optimal financial solution for American Consolidated Media," said David VanderLugt, Senior Vice President, Global Media & Communications. "We were pleased to assist the company in a very active year for the middle market newspaper arena."
About GE Commercial Finance Global Media & Communications
With over $6 billion in assets and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Delhi, London, New York, Norwalk, and San Francisco, Global Media & Communications represents a "one-stop" source for the comprehensive range of GE's lending and other structured finance services offered to the media, communications, and technology industries. Key segments include radio and television broadcasting, cable, entertainment, movie theatres, outdoor advertising, publishing, technology, towers, wireless, and wireline. GE Commercial Finance, which offers businesses around the globe an array of financial products and services, has assets of over $220 billion and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. General Electric (NYSE:GE) is a diversified technology, media and financial services company dedicated to creating products that make life better. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.
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