Movie Gallery bank debt edges up; Adelphia climb tops out

By Paul Deckelman and Sara Rosenberg

New York, Oct. 27 - Movie Gallery Inc.'s term loan B inched higher in trading on Friday with no particular news seen behind the momentum, according to a trader.

The term loan B closed out the day at 93.75 bid, 94.25 offered, up about ¼ point, the trader said.

The Dothan, Ala.-based video chain rental company's 11% notes due 2012, meanwhile, were seen unchanged at 59.5

Adelphia climb stalls

Also in the junk bond market, the recent climb in the bonds of bankrupt Adelphia Communications Inc. seemed to have been stymied on Friday.

A market source saw Adelphia's 79 7/8% notes due 2007 down a point at 79 bid.

Another trader said that there was not as much activity in Adelphia Friday as there had been earlier in the week, when the bonds were on the upside, and saw its 10¼% notes due 2011 "pretty much unchanged" at 81 bid, 82 offered.

While Adelphia's 10¼% notes that had been slated to come due on Nov. 1 were seen perhaps a skosh firmer at 77 bid, 78.5 offered, "there was not a lot of activity in the short paper," he said.

At yet another desk, a source saw Adelphia's bonds slightly lower, with the 2011 101/4s down ½ point at 81.5 bid, and its 8 5/8% notes due 2008 down ¾ point at 78.25.

The Greenwood Village, Colo.-based cabler's paper had been moving steadily upward in anticipation of its coming emergence from Chapter 11, where the company has languished since 2002, when the formerly high-flying Adelphia was laid low by revelations of massive financial irregularities, which exploded into an accounting scandal that led to the ouster of its founding Rigas family from positions of executive power, and the eventual prosecution on fraud charges of founder John Rigas and several member of his family.

Adelphia had also gotten a boost in recent days by general investor optimism in the sector.

Charter gains

That optimism, meantime, was seen pushing Charter Communications Inc., higher. Its bonds were seen having gotten some wind in their sails from the strong quarterly results reported by industry leader Comcast Corp., which on Thursday posted higher profits on record subscriber growth numbers.

A market source saw Charter's 8% notes due 2012 up ¼ point at 102.5, but at another desk, a source saw the St. Louis-based cable operator's 10% notes due 2014 up 2 points on the session to 80 bid, while its zero-coupon notes due 2012 were up more than 3 points at 86.5, and its zeros due 2014 were 4 point winners at 84.25. So were its 11 1/8% notes due 2011 and 2014, at 90 bid and 84 bid, respectively.

Charter's Nasdaq-traded shares were meantime up 17 cents (8.02%) to $2.29 on volume of 30.4 million, about triple the norm. That was on top of a 12% rise in Thursday's trading.

There was no fresh positive news out about the company itself - although some news reports did cite market speculation that speculation that Charter, looking for ways of paring down its $17 billion mountain of debt, might sell its valuable Los Angeles properties to Time Warner Cable after the latter's corporate parent, Time Warner Inc. spins off part of its cable business in an initial public offering.

The main factor seen pushing the Charter bonds and shares up, however, was just investor optimism about the cable sector after the strong Comcast numbers.

Megabounce for MagnaChip

MagnaChip Semiconductor Ltd. - whose distressed bonds were gyrating around wildly on Thursday after the Korean chipmaker reported earnings, first falling several points from Wednesday's levels, and then bouncing back up to end up several points - were seen continuing to push upward in Friday's dealings.

A market source quoted its 8% notes due 2014 at 57 bid, up several points on the session. On Thursday, those bonds had initially plunged to 47 bid, 48 offered, after the results were released, a loss of about 4 or 5 points, but then, traders said, they moved back up after the company's conference call, during which executives indicated that they had sufficient cash. That pushed the bonds back up to around 54.5 bid 55 offered, a gain of about 4 or 5 points on the session, and set the stage for the further upside movement on Friday.

The company's 6 7/8% notes due 2011 moved up to 84.25 Friday, a gain of more than a point on the session.

The high-tech firm had a net loss for the fiscal quarter ended Oct. 1 of $47.7 million, sharply wider than $13.2 million in the third quarter of 2005.

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