On Tuesday evening, the company announced that it is filing for Chapter 11 and shared its plan for restructuring its $17.5 billion in debt.
Frontier is one of the largest broadband providers in Western North Carolina. Beyond that Frontier provides telecom services across 29 states. Bloomberg reports this bankruptcy is one of the biggest telecom reorganizations in the last 20 years.
Frontier says it “expects to continue providing quality service to its customers without interruption” during this process in the press release. It also says it will continue to pay vendors.
“We are undertaking a proactive and strategic process with the support of our Bondholders to reduce our debt by over $10 billion on an expedited basis. We are pleased that constructive engagement with our Bondholders over many months has resulted in a comprehensive recapitalization and restructuring. We do not expect to experience any interruption in providing services to our customers,” says Robert Schriesheim, Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Board of Directors for Frontier in a press release.
The plan for restructuring includes $460 million DIP financing to keep the company running and Frontier is selling its operations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana to Northwest Fiber for about $1.4 billion. This sale is expected to go through at the end of April.
“At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the entire business community, and our team is focused on ensuring the health and safety of our employees and customers,” says Bernie Han, president and CEO in the press release. “The services we provide to our customers keeps them connected, safe and informed, and I would like to thank our team for their continued dedication, especially in light of the current environment.”
Han became CEO of Frontier in December 2019.
Additional information regarding Frontiers’ financial restructuring is available atwww.frontierrestructuring.com. Court filings and information about the claims process are available athttps://cases.primeclerk.com/ftr, by calling the Company’s claims agent, Prime Clerk, toll-free at (877)-433-8020 or sending an email to ftrinfo@primeclerk.com.
