VA Radio: FLS Creditors Meet Friday

Creditors in The Free Lance–Star Publishing Co.’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case will meet this morning in Richmond federal court.

The FLS of Fredericksburg, VA, which filed for bankruptcy Jan. 23, has two primary creditors—New York City-based Sandton Capital Partners and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.—as well as a number of much smaller ones.

FLC assets include the newspaper, Fredericksburg.com, Freelancestar.com, Country WFLS 93.3 FM, Top40 WVBX 99.3 FM The Vibe, Classic Rcoker WWUZ 96.9 FM , and WNTX, Print Innovators, several real-estate properties in the city and a host of additional digital products.

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Sandton owns a loan made to the FLS in 2007 that now has an outstanding balance of about $38 million. The FLS used the loan to build Print Innovators, a state-of-the-art commercial printing plant on Belman Road in Fredericksburg.

There was a brief hearing in the bankruptcy case Thursday. Another hearing is scheduled next Thursday at which the procedure for the bidding process of the FLS’ assets will be discussed. Another hearing is scheduled for March 24.

The FLS never missed a loan payment to original lender BB&T, but fell out of compliance with the terms of the loan agreement due to an insufficient ratio between its debt and earnings.

The FLS is now operating as normal inside bankruptcy protection. The company brought in about $35 million in revenue in 2013, according to court documents, down slightly from 2012.

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