Bond trustees with $1.1 billion on the line in Windstream Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy want to stop the rural broadband provider from paying $54 million monthly to Uniti Group Inc. for access to network assets, the Wall Street Journal reported. The trustees, U.S. Bank NA and UMB Bank NA, said on Friday that Windstream shouldn’t be making more rent payments to Uniti while under chapter 11 protection but instead should be holding on to the cash for payment to all creditors. Windstream’s lease with Uniti is critical to its operations, and the two companies depend on each other, with Windstream supplying more than two-thirds of Uniti’s revenue in exchange for access to fiber and copper networks across the U.S. Windstream spun off those network assets into Uniti in 2015 and signed a lease to rent them out.
