VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Nov 12, 2013) - Glacier Media Inc. (GVC.TO) ("Glacier" or the "Company") announced today that a program of strategic initiatives has been undertaken to enhance its operations and financial position. These initiatives have been designed to address current economic and market challenges, as well as position the Company for long-term growth in accordance with its business strategies.
Value Enhancement Initiatives
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Evolve, Enrich and Extend strategy. The Company has embarked on a comprehensive initiative to grow its business information operations through an Evolve, Enrich and Extend strategy. This strategy focuses on the provision of richer content, data and information, related analytics and business and market intelligence, and the achievement of greater customer utility and decision dependence. Management is currently reviewing the spectrum of verticals in which it operates with a view to focusing resources and efforts on those verticals and opportunities deemed to have the greatest growth potential that can be realized through this Evolve, Enrich and Extend strategy. Business information operations now represent more than half of Glacier's EBITDA. 45% of the business information EBITDA is derived from rich information digital data products designed for scalable growth and high levels of profitability.
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Sale of real estate assets. The Company has initiated plans to sell a significant portfolio of real estate properties in the near term. $4 million was realized from the sale of property in April. $6.5 million was realized from real estate sales in September. Other property dispositions are currently being negotiated. Given current capitalization and interest rates, monetizing real estate value to reduce leverage has been deemed prudent. The real estate sales have been targeted to a) cover any required deposit relating to the previously reported notice of possible re-assessment from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for the 2008-2011 income tax years, should a deposit become payable and b) result in a net reduction of leverage from current levels. The timing of any potential CRA re-assessment is not determinable at this time.
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The Company (excluding its joint ventures) reduced debt by $8.7 million during the quarter. The Company's adjusted debt to EBITDA ratio was reduced to 2.7x at quarter end as a result.
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Sale of non-core assets. Subsequent to quarter end, the Company sold two money losing community newspapers and acquired several more profitable community media assets that provide a better strategic fit with the Company's operations.
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Cost reduction initiatives. Given the softness currently being experienced in the Company's community media operations, a variety of significant cost reduction measures have and are being implemented to reduce overall operating costs. The initiatives are targeted to reduce costs by more than $7 million on an annualized basis. Some of these savings were realized in the third quarter.