AMC secures $950 million bond deal in bid to pay down debt

AMC Entertainment struck a deal to refinance its debt, nearly doubling the size of the bond offering it made early Wednesday.

AMC received investor commitments for a new $950 million bond deal that it will use to pay down maturing debt and related fees. The company had initially targeted a deal size of $500 million with an interest rate of 10.5%.

The new bond will carry an interest rate of around 7.5% and extends the maturity by four years to 2029.

Issuing these senior secured notes is the next step in CEO Adam Aron’s bid to improve AMC’s financial position.

While the domestic box office has begun to recover, ticket sales remain muted compared to prepandemic levels. Refinancing to push debt maturities out can help AMC save cash and pay down interest on other notes that are due sooner.

This fits the narrative that Aron has been communicating to investors in 2022. At the beginning of the year he said his goal was to “refinance some of our debt to reduce our interest expense, push out some debt maturities by several years and loosen covenants.”

After narrowly avoiding bankruptcy last year, AMC rode the meme stock wave and revitalized its business. Now it must deal with more than $5 billion in debt that it accumulated prior to the pandemic through theater upgrades and acquisitions.

Shares of the company slipped more than 8% on Wednesday, last trading around $15. AMC’s stock is down more than 40% so far in 2022.