The Bank of New York Mellon and London Branch seek the company to pay the bond for 400 million dollars which was agreed by both parties in August 2017, as well as the interest generated by the arrears.
José Sagredo, an expert in bankruptcy issues from the GLZ firm, considers that, due to how the precautionary measures obtained by TV Azteca were issued, should no longer have legal effects; However, Ricardo Salinas Pliego’s company may have requested immediate modifications once the WHO declared the pandemic over.
“At any time it is possible to request the modificationclarification and extension of a precautionary measure, while it is in force. [TV Azteca] He was able to request its modification because the precautionary measures were during the pandemic, but they also have the opportunity to change them so that they are during the years after the pandemic to recover from its effects, ”he explains.
For now, TV Azteca’s precautionary measures remain in force, but they can still be contested. Creditors have previously tried to counter the legal mechanisms that the company won in September 2022. The most recent attempt was on March 15 through an appeal against the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Mexico City, in which argues that “TV Azteca would appear to have no payment obligations.”
Fernando Del Castillo Elorzaattorney representing The Bank of New York Mellon and London Branch, stated in the documents to which Expansion had access that the measures are illegal by violating “the Political Constitution of Mexico, depriving the Trustee of the Indenture Agreement of his fundamental rights to due process.” His clients, he says, did not have “an opportunity to defend themselves against injunctive relief.” The appeal was dismissed on March 23.
The precautionary measures are something continuous and, even if the appeal imposed by the creditors has not been admitted, it is still possible to fight by other means, such as an appeal or a counter-guarantee request.
wide measures
On May 10, the Sixty-third Civil Court of Mexico City ordered the content company to Failing to submit information regarding your financial situation to “not cause uncertainty”.
TV Azteca explained that the sentence handed down by the judge was “to protect investors.” In addition, it cleared up any possibility of an entry to Chapter 11 or commercial bankruptcy by stating that “we will continue working to generate the best content for our audiences, while we reiterate our willingness to dialogue with creditors in order to reach a favorable agreement for all parties on this issue.”
The company of tycoon Ricardo Salinas Pliego is also in dispute in the United States with the funds Plenisfer Investments SICAV – Destination Value Total Return, Cyrus Opportunities Master Fund II, Ltd and Sandpiper Limited, which are seeking for the company to enter Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code American to settle liabilities for 63 million 315,000 dollars.
For Brian Rodríguez, an analyst at Monex Grupo Financiero, the lack of financial statements is of no great importance. “Financial obligation is understood as the liabilities of a company, but not the publication of a financial report,” he says.
Sagredo explained that it is the first time that a company that is not in a commercial process has a measure that is precisely designed for commercial issues, so the order not to publish financial statements may be due to a extension of precautionary measures which already counted from last year.
“An order for a company not to publish its financials can subsist until a higher authority revokes it, the procedure ends or the company itself desists from them. But this strategy by TV Azteca will only generate more uncertainty in the investing public and it is something that the company does not want to happen”, he says.
In its latest financial statement, for the fourth quarter of 2022, the company reported a 68% drop in earnings Derived from the drop in advertising sales and the high costs related to the transmission of the Qatar 2022 World Cup matches.