Finance Offers from Private Credit Companies are Received by Dish Network

Private credit companies have made financing offers to Dish Network Corp., the satellite TV provider struggling with over $20 billion in debt and a declining customer base, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

According to people who requested anonymity to discuss private discussions, Dish has received at least one proposal for financing totaling more than $1 billion that would be associated with a so-called unrestricted subsidiary, or a unit that is free to incur debt. One of the people mentioned that debt secured by Dish’s wireless spectrum would be one of the options on the table.

“We are in active discussions with numerous parties to secure committed financing to meet our future obligations and have received significant inbound interest from reputable counterparties looking to provide such financing in various forms and at various positions in our capital structure,” Dish’s Chief Financial Officer Paul Orban said on the company’s March 1 earnings call. “All of which we are carefully evaluating.”

In an attempt to shift its focus from pay TV to wireless services, Dish has been looking for solutions to deal with rapidly approaching maturities. Dish’s parent company, Ergen’s Echostar Corp., abandoned a debt swap in February that would have offered some relief following bondholder resistance to the agreement.

The business announced in January that it was reorganizing assets, including priceless spectrum licenses, into new, unrestricted subsidiaries. This move is frequently a preamble to talk about obtaining additional funding.

Its actions included transferring a few licenses for wireless spectrum into a new company that was incorporated under EchoStar. Additionally, Dish announced that it released a new unit with three million television subscribers from debt covenants.

The actions infuriated the company’s creditors because they removed valuable assets from their grasp.

“Echostar’s debt load of almost $22 billion is likely untenable, and the company could pursue maneuvers to improve liquidity and extend its maturity profile,” senior credit analyst Stephen Flynn of Bloomberg Intelligence wrote in a note on Monday.