Charter repays $2 billion of debt, sells $1.5 billion of notes in Q2

By Devika Patel

Knoxville, Tenn., July 31 – Charter Communications, Inc. repaid $2 billion of debt in the last quarter and issued over $1 billion of investment-grade notes.

“In July, we repaid $2 billion of debt maturity and also raised $1.5 billion in the investment-grade market,” chief financial officer Christopher L. Winfrey said on the company’s second quarter ended June 30 earnings conference call on Tuesday.

As of the end of the second quarter, the company’s net debt to last 12-months’ adjusted EBITDA was 4.47x, within Charter’s targeted range of 4x to 4.5x.

“We did not have and do not have a willingness to temporarily or permanently go above our leverage target,” Winfrey said.

“That’s our stance. It hasn’t changed,” he said.

Second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $4.1 billion.

Free cash flow for the second quarter totaled $804 million, compared to $1.1 billion during the same period last year.

Cash and cash equivalents were $773 million as of June 30, compared to $621 million as of Dec. 31, 2017, and Charter's credit facilities provided about $3.9 billion of additional liquidity.

As of June 30, total debt was $71.1 billion.

In April, Charter issued $800 million of 5.375% senior secured notes due 2038 and $1.7 billion of 5.750% senior secured notes due 2048. The proceeds were used to repay debt, including to fund the July redemption of all of the $2 billion of Time Warner Cable’s 6.75% notes due July 2018.

In July, Charter issued $1.1 billion of 4.5% senior secured notes due 2024, and $400 million of senior secured floating-rate notes due 2024 at Libor plus 165 basis points. The proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

Charter is a Stamford, Conn.-based broadband communications company.

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