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David Pecker Seeks to Raise $425M to Refinance Debt Amid Trump Controversies

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Analysts say they expect American Media Inc. CEO David Pecker to go to market in September in an attempt to generate roughly $425 million to refinance debt.

 

Pecker, of course, has been in the news thanks to the controversy surrounding his role in helping federal authorities win a guilty plea from Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer.

 

Pecker was granted immunity in the federal investigation into President Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen in exchange for providing information on hush money deals, according to the Wall Street Journal. Pecker, the CEO of American Media Inc., told federal prosecutors that Trump had knowledge of Cohen’s payments to women who had alleged sexual encounters with him, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Pecker also provided investigators with details about payments Cohen made to the women, the sources said.

 

“Pecker and AMI Chief Content Officer Dylan Howard were subpoenaed and offered lengthy testimony as prosecutors built their case against Cohen,” the New York Post is reporting. “The two AMI executives were granted immunity from criminal prosecution, The Wall Street Journal reported… Credit Suisse is expected to be tapped as the banker to handle the refinancing bid, but financial players seem split on how the controversy will affect the fundraising efforts.”

 

American Media owns and operates the leading celebrity and health & fitness media brands in the country. Its publications reportedly have a combined total circulation of at least 2.3 million and reach more than 47 million men and women each month. Its digital properties may reach a total of 68 million unique visitors and 751 million page views monthly.

 

AMI pioneered both the celebrity and health & fitness categories. During the 1960s, the National Enquirer was the first magazine to begin publishing celebrity news and gossip on a weekly basis. Weider Publications (acquired by AMI in 2003) launched the very first health & fitness magazine, Your Physique, in 1940.

 

Today, AMI says its celebrity titles have the number one market share in total newsstand circulation in the celebrity category and are the fastest growing brands online. Its health and fitness titles reportedly have the number one market share of national magazine ad pages in their competitive set.

 

The Huffington Post has weighed in on the controversy. It recently wrote, “Hired by the National Enquirer’s late publisher Generoso Pope Jr. in 1985, George went on to work at the Enquirer and its parent company, AMI, for 28 years, earning the titles of senior editor and West Coast bureau chief before eventually leaving the company in 2013. The Enquirer changed dramatically when Pecker was named chairman and chief executive of AMI. A well-resourced, gleefully lowbrow gossip rag became, in George’s telling, a spare operation that at times acted as a protection racket for certain favorite celebrities — especially Donald Trump, Pecker’s close “personal friend.” This week Pecker was granted immunity by federal prosecutors in exchange for information related to payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

 

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