As Media General reported its Q1 financial results, company officials said there has been quite a bit of interest from potential buyers of some or all of its newspapers since the company invited inquires in February. So, what about the TV stations?
Analyst Kevin Cohen of Imperial Capital asked Media General CEO Marshall Morton about the potential asset sales in the Q&A session of the company’s quarterly conference call. Up first in this audio exchange is Morton’s response to a question from Cohen about what valuations might be expected for any newspaper sales. They then go on to discuss strategy and whether there might also be sales of broadcasting assets.
[audio:Marshall-Morton-041812.mp3|titles=Marshall Morton & Kevin Cohen]As the discussion with analysts continued Morton conceded that even selling the entire newspaper group won’t do anything to de-lever Media General’s balance sheet. But should the company encounter any debt covenant problems down the road, it would still have TV stations it could sell to de-lever.
There was no mention of broadcast multiples, but they have certainly been stronger than the four or five times cash flow discussed in the call for newspaper properties.
