Encina Business Credit, LLC Announces the Closing of a $50 Million New Money DIP Facility for The McClatchy Company

Encina Business Credit, LLC (“EBC”) announces the completion of a $50.0 million revolving credit facility for The McClatchy Company (“McClatchy”). The facility was used to refinance McClatchy’s pre-petition, asset-based revolver and support their working capital needs during bankruptcy. The facility is also structured to automatically convert to an exit financing upon meeting certain criteria.

McClatchy (www.mcclatchy.com), headquartered in Sacramento, California, USA, was founded in 1857, has 2,800 employees, is publicly traded on the NYSE American (“MNI”) and operates a leading news publishing company providing local journalism to 30 communities in 14 states.  Well-known published brands include Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, The Charlotte Observer and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  The company also provides selected national news coverage through its Washington, D.C. bureau.  McClatchy’s media companies have won 54 Pulitzer Prizes and numerous other awards for delivering excellence in journalism. 

Elaine Lintecum, Vice President Finance and Chief Financial Officer of McClatchy, said, “We are grateful for Encina’s confidence in our business and management team. This additional financing will supplement our existing cash flows throughout the process to ensure our local news outlets are able to operate as usual throughout this process and enable us to fulfill our commitments to stakeholders.”

“Encina is appreciative of the opportunity to partner with the McClatchy Company by providing them a working capital facility that will allow them to complete their restructuring and focus on their digital transformation strategy.  Completing diligence on a complex company can be very time consuming and challenging.  The experienced and very skilled management team at McClatchy made this process easy and efficient.  Encina’s prior experience in the media space coupled with management’s efforts allowed us to move quickly providing a commitment in less than a week.” said Marty Battaglia, Encina’s Business Credit’s CEO.

About Encina Business Credit:

Launched in March 2016, Encina Business Credit is a Chicago-based, independent asset-based lending platform targeting borrowers in the U.S. and Canada that look to obtain financing away from traditional banks. The firm provides revolving lines of credit and term loans ranging in size from $10 - $100 million and secured by accounts receivable, inventory, machinery & equipment and real estate. The platform lends to both privately-owned (sponsor and non-sponsor) and publicly-traded companies across a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, retail, automotive, oil & gas, services, distribution and consumer products. Borrowers use loan proceeds to fund working capital, acquisitions, refinancings, growth, restructurings/turnarounds, debtor-in-possession (DIP)/exit financings and other special situations. Positive cash flow is not a requirement.