“This accelerated court-supervised sale process will strengthen the company and position Vice for long-term growth, thereby safeguarding the kind of authentic journalism and content creation that makes Vice such a trusted brand for young people and such a valued partner to brands, agencies and platforms,” Vice co-CEOs Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala said in a statement. Vice said it anticipates that the financing and cash generated from ongoing operations will be “more than sufficient” to fund its business throughout the sale process, which it expects to conclude in the next two to three months. In announcing the restructuring, Vice said it expects to “emerge as a financially healthy and stronger company” and said it is “operating as usual and remains focused on producing and delivering premium content and services“ across all its businesses worldwide. The winning bid (or bids) will be subject to approval by the bankruptcy court. The lenders will serve as “stalking horse” bidders, which means that other potential buyers will have an opportunity to submit bids. Vice once carried a $5.7 billion valuation back in 2017. In addition, Vice secured commitments for debtor-in-possession financing from the lender consortium, as well as consent to use more than $20 million of cash that constitutes the cash collateral of the lender consortium. The consortium agreed to provide total purchase consideration of approximately $225 million in the form of a credit bid for substantially all of the company’s assets, in addition to the assumption of significant liabilities upon closing. These include Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital. In a statement, Vice said that it had agreed to the terms of an asset-purchase agreement with a consortium of lenders. According to Vice Media, substantially all of the company’s international entities and the Vice TV joint venture with A+E Networks are not part of the Chapter 11 filing. The company said in a court filing that it listed both assets and liabilities in the range of $500 million to $1 billion (available at this link). Struggling media company Vice Media Group said on Monday it had filed for Chapter 11 protection to facilitate its sale to a subset of its backers.
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