JPMorgan Chase Bank served as administrative agent and collateral agent on an amendment to an existing credit agreement and the completion of a new revolving credit facility for Live Nation Entertainment. In addition, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Toronto Branch, served as Canadian agent and J.P. Morgan Europe Limited served as London agent.
“The live entertainment industry has delivered incredible global growth for over 20 years, which speaks to the great passion and resilience of fan demand,” Michael Rapino, president and CEO of Live Nation Entertainment, said. “With this additional liquidity, the flexibility in our debt covenants and cost-cutting efforts, we believe that Live Nation has the financial strength to weather this difficult time. We will be ready to ramp back up quickly and once again connect audiences to artists at the concerts they are looking forward to.”
The credit agreement amendment will suspend Live Nation’s net leverage covenant under its existing senior secured credit agreement for Q2/20 and Q3/20. Commencing with Q4/20 through Q2/21, the net leverage covenant will be calculated by substituting consolidated EBITDA, as defined in the credit agreement, from Q2/20 and Q3/20 with consolidated EBITDA from the Q2/19 and Q3/19. As a result, this amendment will eliminate the use of consolidated EBITDA from Q2/20 and Q3/20 in any net leverage covenant test, allowing the company the flexibility to manage its business through the disruption it will experience in 2020.
The new incremental revolving credit facility of $120 million will extend Live Nation’s undrawn debt capacity. Following this increase, Live Nation has approximately $940 million in available debt capacity, including $400 million in undrawn term loan A capacity and $540 million in available revolver capacity.
As of February 29, 2020, Live Nation’s total cash and cash equivalents balance was $3.3 billion, which included $914 million of free cash and $2.0 billion of event-related deferred revenue. This free cash and event-related deferred revenue, together with the now available debt capacity of $940 million, gives the company a total liquidity position of $3.8 billion.
Live Nation Entertainment is a live entertainment company comprised of Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts and Live Nation Media & Sponsorship.
