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New York: Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu is near a deal to invest about USD 250 million in The New York Times Company, helping to shore up the publishing company's struggling finances, a media report said.
The company's board is expected to approve the deal and an announcement could be made as early as Tuesday, the 'New York Times' said, quoting people briefed on the transaction.
However, they also warned that several details still needed to be completed and that it remained possible the agreement could collapse.
The deal, the Times says, would come as the Times Company moves to raise money amid flagging advertising sales and approaching deadlines to pay back hundreds of millions of dollars of debt over the next two years.
The company has put its stake in the Boston Red Sox up for sale and said last year that it would borrow as much as USD 225 million against its new headquarters in Manhattan through a sale-leaseback agreement.
Under the terms of the deal, Slim, who already owns 6.4 per cent of the Times Company, would invest USD 250 million in the form of 10-year notes with warrants that are convertible into common shares, these people said.
As part of Slim's investment, which resembles a loan, he is expected to get a special annual dividend, perhaps as high as 10 per cent or more on this investment, the paper reported, citing these people.
Slim is not expected to get any representation on the company's board or any shares with special voting rights like those of the Sulzberger family, which controls the company.
Nonetheless, when Slim exercises the warrants, he would become the largest shareholder in the Times Company, owning about a third of the common stock.
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