Tronc completes sale of L.A. Times, may change corporate name
Tronc completed its $500 million sale of the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune to biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong on Monday, ushering in a new era for both the Chicago-based newspaper chain and its former California holdings.
Tronc also is looking to shed its much derided corporate moniker, and bring the Tribune name back in some form, sources said.
The sale of the L.A. Times, which has taken more than four months to close, returns that paper to local ownership after 18 years under a Chicagobased corporate parent.
Tronc executives have said they would use the proceeds from the sale to fully repay outstanding debt and pursue acquisitions. The company had longterm debt of nearly $327 million as of the first quarter, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We are very pleased to close this transaction, which greatly strengthens our balance sheet and significantly lowers our pension liabilities,” Justin Dearborn, chairman and CEO of Tronc, said in an emailed statement Monday. “We are now positioned to further reinvest in our business and enhance our capabilities to continue to deliver world-class journalism. We are confident that high quality journalism will continue with the changeover to local leadership of the Los Angeles Times and The San Diego UnionTribune.”
Soon-Shiong, Tronc’s secondlargest shareholder, also will assume $90 million of pension liabilities.
Formerly known as Tribune Publishing, Tronc owns newspapers including the Orlando Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant, South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Daily Press in Newport News, Va., and The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa.
In a report to investors Monday, Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza said the Times sale makes Tronc “compelling” as an acquisition target.
Tronc struck a deal to sell the California newspapers to Soon-Shiong in February. The transaction was slowed by negotiations for a transition services agreement under which Tronc would provide services to the California newspapers for up to 12 months after closing, executives said.
Tronc’s former parent company, Tribune Co. (now Tribune Media), acquired Times Mirror Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times and other assets, for $8.3 billion in 2000. Tribune Publishing bought the San Diego Union-Tribune and nine weeklies in 2015.