Take Two of AMC’s Debt Revamp Gains Traction With Creditors
The deal closed in just three weeks with 90% support from lenders
Welcome to The Brink. This is Irene Garcia Perez, Georgia Hall and Reshmi Basu, reporters in New York, where we’ve been following the ups and downs of AMC’s debt refinancing. We also have the latest on private credit defaults and some good news about troubled German landlord Branicks Group. Follow this link to subscribe. Send us feedback and tips at debtnews@bloomberg.net or DM on X to @twitterhandlewithlink.
On a hot Tuesday last month, several cabs pulled up in front of the office that houses Deutsche Bank’s Distressed Products team in New York to deliver a few dozen AMC-branded buckets filled to the brim with popcorn.
The occasion? The movie-theatre chain had just agreed to a deal with creditors led by Deutsche and alternative investment fund Carronade Capital Management to provide it with more liquidity.
The popcorn was partly celebratory, but also meant to give Deutsche’s team energy to persuade other AMC’s creditors to get on board. It worked: within just three weeks, some 90% of lenders supported the deal.
The liability management exercise was AMC’s second in less than a year after the first one triggered a lawsuit from creditors — including Deutsche Bank — who got left behind in a drop-down transaction.
This second time around, the company got $244 million of new money to refinance debt maturing in 2026 and provide incremental liquidity. It also agreed the immediate conversion to equity of at least $143 million of 6%/8% senior secured exchangeable notes due 2030, with the potential to convert up to a total of $337 million of those notes over time.