For News Corporation, buying back $133.4 million of its securities is not a very big deal. The company announced Friday that it will redeem all of its 5% Exchangeable Trust Originated Preferred Securities issued by two subsidiaries.
If you need to check your lockbox to see if you hold any of these securities, here’s what to look for: The 5% Trust Originated Preferred Securities (the “Finance Securities”) were issued pursuant to the Amended and Restated Declaration of Trust of News Corporation Finance Trust, dated November 12, 1996. The 5% Exchangeable Trust Originated Preferred Securities (the “Exchange Securities”) were issued pursuant to the Amended and Restated Declaration of Trust of News Corporation Exchange Trust, dated November 12, 1996. The Finance Trust and the Exchange Trust are wholly-owned by News America Incorporated, a wholly-owned subsidiary of News Corporation.
Both issues are to be redeemed on April 19th. The redemption price of the Finance Securities shall be equivalent to $80.60 per Finance Security, which is calculated as the issue price of the Finance Security plus accrued OID plus all accrued and unpaid distributions to the Redemption Date. The redemption price of the Exchange Securities shall be equivalent to $100.26 per Exchange Security, which is calculated as the issue price of the Exchange Security plus all accrued and unpaid distributions to the Redemption Date.
News Corporation said the Finance Securities and Exchange Securities will be redeemed for an aggregate purchase price, excluding accrued interest, of approximately $133.4 million. The Bank of New York Mellon is acting as the property trustee in connection with the redemption.
