Endemol NV, the Amsterdam-based producer of television shows Deal Or No Deal and Big Brother, has agreed with its lenders to waive the terms of its debt pile, totaling more than EUR2 billion, until early February, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
The extension allows the company breathing space to restructure the debt, after having breached its banking covenants earlier in the year, the person said.
Endemol is two-thirds owned by the company's lenders, which include Barclays PLC (BCS) unit Barclays Capital, Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS) and a collection of hedge funds that bought debt in the company. The other third is owned by a consortium comprising Mediaset SpA (MS.MI), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Cyrte Investments BV, a vehicle created by Endemol co-founder John De Mol.
Endemol has recently received bid offers from Mediaset, which is seeking to prevent its equity in the company being eroded by the debt restructure, and U.S. media giant Time Warner Inc. (TWX). Time Warner submitted an all-cash offer valuing Endemol's equity at approximately $1.35 billion earlier this week.
