A bankruptcy court judge yesterday confirmed iHeartMedia Inc.’s restructuring plan, which allows the company to slash its debt load and hand over control to a group of bondholders, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The decision by Judge Marvin Isgur in Houston allows the country’s biggest radio-station operator to bring to a close a nearly three-year restructuring journey and almost a year in chapter 11. The restructuring plan reduces its debt from $16.1 billion to $5.75 billion and hands over ownership of the company to a group of bondholders led by Franklin Advisers Inc. after about a decade of control by private-equity firms Bain Capital Partners LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP. The company is expected to exit bankruptcy sometime in the second quarter, considering a slight delay in getting regulatory approvals because of the government shutdown, said Benjamin Rhode, of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, iHeartMedia’s lawyer.
