Ski resort operator Intrawest has reached a deal to refinance its corporate debt, apparently
staving off a bid by lenders to auction off the company’s assets.
Intrawest, a unit of
Fortress Investment Group, said on Tuesday that all prior
lenders had been repaid in full and the new loan does not mature until
2014. Terms of the loan were not
disclosed.
Intrawest had been negotiating with lenders to refinance
the $1.7 billion in debt taken on when Fortress purchased it in 2006.
The earlier loans had been due in December.
The company has repaid its prior lenders and taken out a new loan
that’s scheduled to mature in 2014, Intrawest officials announced in a
statement issued on Tuesday (April 27).
Since at least last October, when Intrawest missed a $524 million
debt repayment deadline, officials with the Vancouver-based resort
operator and Fortress Investment Group
have been negotiating with lenders on a refinancing deal.
Lenders including Lehman Brothers and Davidson Kempner
LLP had threatened to hold an auction of Intrawest’s assets.
As talks were taking place over the past several months, Intrawest
has sold off resorts at Copper Mountain in Colorado, Panorama in
southeastern B.C., Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Florida and real
estate assets in Squaw Valley, Calif.
Intrawest still owns eight mountain resorts, with WB as its flagship.
Its resort portfolio still includes Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Stratton
Mountain in Vermont, Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia, and Steamboat
and Winter Park in Colorado.
