NEW YORK – Summit Business Media, parent company to Credit Union Times, said this morning it filed a pre-packaged bankruptcy with an existing plan with its creditors to restructure its debt.
The company, which publishes numerous other titles, said it has received approvals from 83% of its lenders for a debt restructuring plan that will cut its outstanding debt obligations by more than half, or approximately $135 million, and materially enhance its financial position.
The New York-based publisher of 16 magazines, 20 websites and 150 reference titles filed for Chapter 11 protection late Tuesday with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware. Several affiliates of the business-to-business media company also filed.
Wind Point Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, controls 85 percent of Summit's equity, while management owns the remainder, the company said. Debt and general unsecured claims totaled about $252 million, the company said.
The agreement by most of the company's lenders was achieved in advance of its filing of a voluntary petition for reorganization under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Summit said it expects to emerge from the restructuring during the first half of 2011.
Summit said it will pay all vendors for goods and services received during the reorganization process, and that all Summit employees will receive uninterrupted wages and benefits.
The company blamed the recession, downturns in some of the sectors it serves, and an acquisition binge that started in 2006 for contributing to its financial situation.
