Mexico City – TV Aztecathe television station owned by businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego, today had its first hearing with the group of creditors seeking to have the company declared bankrupt under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
In a preliminary response sent to the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York the television station requested to dismiss the case, due to the fact that its operations are mainly focused in Mexico and the impracticability of bringing the trial in the United States.
“This is an unprecedented attempt to force a foreign company, whose assets and operations are almost entirely outside the United States, to undergo an involuntary reorganization here,” Ajusco television station said in its response to the court.
During the day of March 29, the shares of TV Azteca (AZTECPO) fell 4.71% on the Mexican Stock Exchange and were trading at MXN$0.65 per share (Mexico City 11:21 a.m.).
TV Azteca pointed out that the involuntary bankruptcy application, filed by Planisfer Investments, Cyrus Opportunities Master Fund II y Sandpiper Limitedis linked to the amparo process that the television station began in September in Mexico.
What is before the Court It’s an artificial emergency motion.supposedly caused by the deadlines at the end of this week to present appeals in the Mexican courts and the application of the automatic suspension, ”says the document presented in court.
The hearing was held today, March 29, at 11:00 a.m. New York time. Up to the time of writing this note, the Court has not published the result of the hearing.
On March 27, the second largest television station in Mexico, published its results for the fourth quarter of the year, where it reported that profits fell 50% to MXN$125 million, compared to the same period in 2021. The results were released after request an extension of delivery time and before the time limit date.
The shares of the Mexican television station perform volatilely on the Mexican Stock Exchange after the bankruptcy petition by the bond creditors.
On March 22, the shares of TV Azteca plummeted more than 30% in the Mexican stock market, coinciding with the request of a group of creditors to declare bankruptcy after having defaulted on payments to foreign bondholders.
The drop in shares was the biggest since February 2021; in addition to having touched its worst level of $0.48 pesos per share, according to Bloomberg data.
After the decline, the share titles of Ricardo Salinas Pliego’s company, recovered the losses in five sessions where it accumulates a return of 35%. The papers are considered of low marketability due to the low volume of operations that it shows.
