Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Long-Term Debt

v3.20.2
Long-Term Debt
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2020
Long-Term Debt  
Long-Term Debt

(6)   Long-Term Debt

Debt is summarized as follows:

Outstanding

 

principal at

Carrying value

 

    

September 30, 2020

    

September 30, 2020

    

December 31, 2019

 

amounts in millions

 

Corporate level debentures

8.5% Senior Debentures due 2029

$

287

 

285

 

285

8.25% Senior Debentures due 2030

 

504

 

502

 

502

4% Exchangeable Senior Debentures due 2029

431

355

327

3.75% Exchangeable Senior Debentures due 2030

432

342

318

3.5% Exchangeable Senior Debentures due 2031

218

371

422

0.75% Exchangeable Senior Debentures due 2043

2

1.75% Exchangeable Senior Debentures due 2046

332

614

488

Subsidiary level notes and facilities

QVC 5.125% Senior Secured Notes due 2022

 

 

 

500

QVC 4.375% Senior Secured Notes due 2023

 

750

 

750

 

750

QVC 4.85% Senior Secured Notes due 2024

 

600

 

600

 

600

QVC 4.45% Senior Secured Notes due 2025

600

599

599

QVC 4.75% Senior Secured Notes due 2027

575

575

QVC 4.375% Senior Secured Notes due 2028

500

500

QVC 5.45% Senior Secured Notes due 2034

400

399

399

QVC 5.95% Senior Secured Notes due 2043

 

300

 

300

 

300

QVC 6.375% Senior Secured Notes due 2067

225

225

225

QVC 6.25% Senior Secured Notes due 2068

500

500

500

QVC Bank Credit Facilities

 

 

 

1,235

Deferred loan costs

(51)

(40)

Total consolidated Qurate Retail debt

$

6,654

 

6,866

 

7,412

Less current classification

 

(1,682)

 

(1,557)

Total long-term debt

$

5,184

 

5,855

QVC Bank Credit Facilities

On December 31, 2018, QVC entered into the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement with Zulily as co-borrower (collectively, the “Borrowers”) which is a multi-currency facility that provides for a $2.95 billion revolving credit facility, with a $450 million sub-limit for standby letters of credit and $1.5 billion of uncommitted incremental revolving

loan commitments or incremental term loans. The Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement includes a $400 million tranche that may be borrowed by QVC or Zulily, with a $50 million sub-limit for standby letters of credit.  The remaining $2.55 billion and any incremental loans may be borrowed only by QVC.  Borrowings that are alternate base rate loans will bear interest at a per annum rate equal to the base rate plus a margin that varies between 0.25% to 0.75% depending on the Borrowers combined ratio of Consolidated Total Debt to Consolidated EBITDA (the “Combined Consolidated Leverage Ratio”). Borrowings that are LIBOR loans will bear interest at a per annum rate equal to the applicable LIBOR rate plus a margin that varies between 1.25% and 1.75% depending on the Borrowers’ Combined Consolidated Leverage Ratio. Each loan may be prepaid at any time and from time to time without penalty other than customary breakage costs. No mandatory prepayments will be required other than when borrowings and letter of credit usage exceed availability; provided that, if Zulily ceases to be controlled by Qurate Retail, all of its loans must be repaid and its letters of credit cash collateralized. The facility matures on December 31, 2023. Payment of loans may be accelerated following certain customary events of default.

The payment and performance of the Borrowers’ obligations (including Zulily’s obligations) under the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement are guaranteed by each of QVC’s Material Domestic Subsidiaries (as defined in the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement). Further, the borrowings under the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement are secured, pari passu with QVC’s existing notes, by a pledge of all of QVC’s equity interests.  In addition, the payment and performance of the Borrowers’ obligations with respect to the $400 million tranche available to both QVC and Zulily are also guaranteed by each of Zulily’s Material Domestic Subsidiaries (as defined in the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement), if any, and are secured by a pledge of all of Zulily’s equity interests.

The Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement contains certain affirmative and negative covenants, including certain restrictions on QVC and Zulily and each of their respective restricted subsidiaries (subject to certain exceptions) with respect to, among other things: incurring additional indebtedness; creating liens on property or assets; making certain loans or investments; selling or disposing of assets; paying certain dividends and other restricted payments; dissolving, consolidating or merging; entering into certain transactions with affiliates; entering into sale or leaseback transactions; restricting subsidiary distributions; and limiting QVC’s consolidated leverage ratio, and the Borrowers’ Combined Consolidated Leverage Ratio.

Availability under the Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement at September 30, 2020 was $2.9 billion, including the portion available under the $400 million tranche that Zulily may also borrow on.  

4.75% Senior Secured Notes due 2027

On February 4, 2020, QVC completed a registered debt offering for $575 million of the 4.75% Senior Secured Notes due 2027 (the "2027 Notes") at par. Interest on the 2027 Notes will be paid semi-annually in February and August, with payments commencing on August 15, 2020. The proceeds were used to partially prepay existing indebtedness under QVC's bank credit facilities.

4.375% Senior Secured Notes due 2028

On August 20, 2020, QVC completed a registered debt offering for $500 million of the 4.375% Senior Secured Notes due 2028 (the "2028 Notes") at par. Interest on the 2028 Notes will be paid semi-annually in March and September, with payments commencing on March 1, 2021. The proceeds were used in a cash tender offer (the “Tender Offer”) to purchase the outstanding $500 million of 5.125% Senior Secured Notes due 2022 (the “2022 Notes”). QVC also issued a notice of redemption exercising its right to optionally redeem any of the 2022 Notes that remained outstanding following the Tender Offer. As a result of the Tender Offer and the redemption, the Company recorded a loss on extinguishment of debt in the condensed consolidated statements of operations of $42 million for both the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020.

Exchangeable Senior Debentures

The Company has elected to account for its exchangeable senior debentures using the fair value option.  Accordingly, changes in the fair value of these instruments are recognized as unrealized gains (losses) in the statements of operations. See note 4 for information related to unrealized gains (losses) on debt measured at fair value.  As of September 30, 2020 the Company’s exchangeable debentures have been classified as current because the Company does not own shares to redeem the debentures or they are currently redeemable. The Company reviews the terms of the debentures on a quarterly basis to determine whether a triggering event has occurred to require current classification of the exchangeables upon a call event.

On April 1, 2020, T-Mobile US, Inc. completed its acquisition of Sprint Corporation (“TMUS/S Acquisition”) for 0.10256 shares of T-Mobile US, Inc. for every share of Sprint Corporation. Following the TMUS/S Acquisition, the reference shares attributable to each $1,000 original principal amount of the 4.0% Senior Exchangeable Debentures due 2029 and the 3.75% Senior Exchangeable Debentures due 2030 consist of 0.3309 shares and 0.2419 shares of common stock of T-Mobile US, Inc., respectively, and 0.7860 shares and 0.5746 shares of common stock of CenturyLink, Inc., respectively.

Debt Covenants

Qurate Retail and its subsidiaries are in compliance with all debt covenants at September 30, 2020.

Fair Value of Debt

Qurate Retail estimates the fair value of its debt based on the quoted market prices for the same or similar issues or on the current rate offered to Qurate Retail for debt of the same remaining maturities (Level 2). The QVC 6.375% Senior Secured Notes due 2067 (“2067 Notes”) and the QVC 6.25% Senior Secured Notes Due 2068 (“2068 Notes”) are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and the Company considers them to be actively traded. As such, the 2067 Notes and 2068 Notes are valued based on their trading price (Level 1). The fair value of Qurate Retail's publicly traded debt securities that are not reported at fair value in the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheet at September 30, 2020 are as follows (amounts in millions):

Senior debentures

$

846

QVC senior secured notes

    

$

4,481

Due to the variable rate nature, Qurate Retail believes that the carrying amount of its other debt, not discussed above, approximated fair value at September 30, 2020.