As Sumner Redstone continues to renegotiate $1.6 billion in debt–half of which is due on December 19–the financial world still expects that he will have to sell part of his public stock, even though he has insisted repeatedly he will not do so. The NYT says, “Here is what just about everyone, including those in Mr. Redstone’s inner circle, agrees on: if it gets bad enough, Mr. Redstone has indicated he would be willing to part with CBS, but not Viacom, according to three people briefed on the talks who, like the others involved, spoke on condition of anonymity.”
Analyst Rich Greenfield at Pali Research wrote in a report that Wall Street is expecting further stock sales: “we believe investors are already assuming it will happen.”
Redstone is said to have proposed selling the privately-owned National Amusement movie screen theater chain, “but the proposed sale may not be enough to placate bankers, not least because no one can seem to agree on what the movie theaters are worth.”
NYT