Frontier Communications Corp. on Monday was set to make roughly $320 million of debt payments, at least temporarily easing fears of a near-term bankruptcy filing for the wireline telecom company, the Wall Street Journal reported. Though not all investors owed interest payments had received them as of yesterday, Frontier bondholders said that they were informed by custodial banks that the cash was being transferred, ending weeks of speculation about whether the company would pay coupons on several bonds, including large issues due in 2022 and 2025. Given Frontier’s roughly $17 billion debt load and struggles to cope with cord-cutting customers, investors and analysts have long considered it possible that the company might end up in bankruptcy. Speculation, though, intensified in recent months after the company appointed restructuring experts to its board, said it wouldn’t take questions on its second-quarter earnings call and adopted a decidedly negative tone on that call compared with previous communications.
