Windstream tackles debt maturities, expects to refi, extend bank debt

By Devika Patel

Knoxville, Tenn., May 23 – Windstream Holdings, Inc. is focused on its balance sheet and is considering ways to deal with its near-term maturities and refinance its credit facility.

“We’ve been very proactive in addressing our balance sheet in the fourth quarter,” treasurer and chief financial officer Bob Gunderman said at the Barclays High Yield Bond & Syndicated Loan Conference in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Wednesday.

“We refinanced about $2 billion of debt maturities.

“We have always taken the approach of being proactive and staying ahead of our debt maturities.

“That’s not going to change,” Gunderman said.

The company plans more work on the balance sheet, addressing some near-term maturities.

“We’re very active right now and considering additional steps to take to improve the balance sheet,” Gunderman said.

“We have about $1 billion outstanding right now on our revolver coming due in 2020.

“We also have about $490 million 2020 unsecured maturity and a term loan of about $1 billion, $1.1 billion in 2021.

“After that, no real material maturities until 2023 and beyond.

“So, obviously, our main focus in the near term is to address the 2020s,” Gunderman said.

The company also plans to refinance its credit facility.

“I do expect that we’ll have success in refinancing our credit facility to include the revolver and the term loans,” Gunderman said.

“We’ve been active in discussions with our lenders about those possibilities and I think that we’ll have some things to say about that in the near-term, so look for some communications around that in the not-too-distant future,” he said.

The company is considering reducing its revolver and term loans in order to refinance and extend their terms.

“It would be helpful if we reduced both the revolver and the term loans as an incentive for extension,” Gunderman said.

“I think that’s something that lenders would most likely want to see for maturity extension and so that’s something we’re focused on,” Gunderman said.

The company expects EBITDA to grow and is therefore not too concerned about its 4x leverage ratio.

“Today, we’re just over 4x levered underneath our maintenance covenant of the credit agreement,” Gunderman said.

“Obviously, with an improving business profile, we grew EBITDA in the quarter, through the year.

“We expect continued improvement, certainly into 2019.

“We expect to grow EBITDA so we don’t see that as something in the near-term we need to address,” he said.

Windstream is a Little Rock, Ark.-based networking and telecommunications company.

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