US education and media company Graham Holdings (NYSE: GHC) has completed the spin-off of its Cable One unit.
The transaction saw one share of Cable One common stock distributed for every Class A or B common stock of Graham Holdings outstanding on 15…
US education and media company Graham Holdings (NYSE: GHC) has completed the spin-off of its Cable One unit.
The transaction saw one share of Cable One common stock distributed for every Class A or B common stock of Graham Holdings outstanding on 15 June.
Cable One, which serves smaller cities in the Midwest, southern and northern US, begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange today under the ticker symbol CABO.
Cable One president and CEO Thomas Might said the company is “extremely well positioned as an independent company to continue its tradition of excellent returns for its shareholders …”
Graham Holdings president and CEO Donald Graham noted that Cable One has been of central importance to the company for 30 years, adding that Might and other members of the management team have been a part of it for even longer.
Cable One claims to serve nearly 700,000 customers in 19 states with high-speed internet, cable television and telephone services.
The cableco recently completed a private offering of US$450m and inked a US$100m private bank term loan in connection with the spin-off. Proceeds from the notes and available cash were to be used to pay a one-off cash dividend to Graham Holdings (formerly The Washington Post Company). The loan will be used to provide it with cash after the spin-off and it also has access to a US$200m undrawn revolver.
Moody’s said in a recent note that it expects Cable One’s debt-to-EBITDA ratio upon separation from Graham to stand at 1.6x. However, the agency noted that the cableco’s management intend to increase leverage to between 2.5x and 3.5x with additional debt issuances to fund acquisitions and shareholder payouts. Moody’s has assigned Cable One first-time corporate family and probability of default ratings of Ba3.
