George Soros Firm To Become Largest Audacy Shareholder

George Soros’ investment firm is expected to become the largest shareholder of Audacy, the bankrupt owner of WEEI and other Boston radio stations. Audacy operates 225 stations in 45 U.S. markets, and its podcasts have more than 150 million monthly downloads.

Soros Fund Management, founded by the billionaire backer of Democratic politicians and causes, now has more than $414 million of Audacy’s debt, according to The Boston Herald citing a court filing this week.

The Soros investment firm appeared on a list of Audacy’s lenders in the filing out of U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Bloomberg was the first to report on Soros Fund Management and Audacy.

Soros Fund Management, a New York City-based investment manager for certain funds and accounts, has $279.8 million in term loans and $135 million in revolving credit.

Audacy filed for prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the start of the year, as the company’s leader blamed a “perfect storm” of financial challenges sparking a drop of several billion dollars in radio ad spending.

Meanwhile, the company entered into a restructuring agreement with a supermajority of its debtholders.

“The decision by our existing and new debtholders to become equity holders in Audacy represents a significant vote of confidence in our company and the future of the radio and audio business,” an Audacy spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.

“We expect to emerge from our restructuring process with a strong capital structure and well-positioned to capitalize on our strategic transformation into a scaled leading multi-platform audio content and entertainment company,” the spokesperson added. “We intend to continue running our business, executing our strategy and delivering for our listeners and advertisers as we always do.”

Audacy anticipates that it will emerge from bankruptcy once regulatory approval is obtained from the Federal Communications Commission.

Other Audacy lenders named in the filing out of bankruptcy court include Goldman Sachs Asset Management, PGIM, SI Capital Commercial Finance, Solus Alternative Asset Management, and Mockingbird Credit Opportunities Company.