AMC Taps Junk Bonds to Refinance High-Cost Pandemic Debt

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. is selling $500 million of junk bonds to refinance expensive debt sold earlier in the pandemic to help get it through shutdowns, the latest company looking to save interest costs as business improves.

The movie-theater operator is selling bonds due 2029 with a yield in the range of 8%, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Proceeds will pay down debt maturing in 2025 with an interest rate of 10.5%, according to a statement on Wednesday.

The deal marks the first junk-bond sale from the company since the notes due 2025 were sold in April 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company also got high-cost loans in February 2021. AMC’s Chief Executive Officer Adam Aron said last month that refinancing some of the company’s debt was one of his goals for 2022.

“In 2020 and early 2021, AMC took on debt at high interest rates to survive,” Aron tweeted. “If we can, in 2022 I’d like to refinance some of our debt to reduce our interest expense, push out some debt maturities by several years and loosen covenants.”

Leawood, Kansas-based AMC teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in late 2020. Then a group of day traders banded together on Reddit and Twitter and started buying its shares along with those of other “meme stock” companies.

AMC’s shares closed at $16.86 Tuesday, having risen as high as $62.55 last year from a low of $1.98 just a few months before. The company was able to sell shares multiple times, to help chip away at its debt load and fund possible acquisitions.

Even so, its interest-rate obligations have swelled since the pandemic’s start. AMC paid more than $328 million in interest on its borrowings in the first nine months of 2021, according to company regulatory filings, up from about $219 million in the same period in 2019. The company has more than $5 billion of bonds and loans outstanding, according to a company regulatory filing for the quarter ended Sept. 30.

On Tuesday, the company reported fourth-quarter results that topped expectations as the reopening of theaters and successful new releases helped boost its performance. AMC’s 10.5% notes due 2025 last traded around 106.125 cents on the dollar, having fallen to as low as about 53 cents on the dollar in October 2020, while some of the company’s other bonds were among the top gainers early Wednesday, according to Trace pricing data.

Augusta Saraiva and Gowri Gurumurthy report for Bloomberg News.

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