Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Debt

v3.3.1.900
Debt
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015
Debt  
Debt Disclosure [Text Block]

(8) Debt

On October 30, 2014, in connection with and prior to the effectiveness of the Broadband Spin-Off, a wholly-owned special purpose subsidiary of the Company ("BroadbandSPV") entered into two margin loan agreements (the "Margin Loan Agreements") with each of the lenders party thereto. The Margin Loan Agreements permit BroadbandSPV, subject to certain funding conditions, to borrow term loans up to an aggregate principal amount equal to $400 million (the "Margin Loans"), of which BroadbandSPV borrowed $320 million on October 31, 2014 and had $80 million available to be drawn immediately following the Broadband Spin-Off. During November 2014, subsequent to the Broadband Spin-Off, Liberty Broadband borrowed an additional $52 million to fund the exercise of the Charter warrants. As of December 31, 2014, Liberty Broadband had $372 million outstanding under the Margin Loan Agreements, with an additional $28 million available to be drawn. $300 million of the amount borrowed pursuant to the Margin Loan Agreements (less certain expenses incurred in connection with the Margin Loans) was distributed to Liberty prior to the Broadband Spin-Off. During October 2015, Liberty Broadband borrowed an additional $28 million pursuant to the Margin Loan Agreements. The maximum borrowing capacity of $400 million under the Margin Loan Agreements was outstanding at December 31, 2015. The maturity date of the Margin Loans is October 30, 2017. Borrowings under the Margin Loan Agreements bear interest at the three-month LIBOR rate plus 1.55%. Interest is payable quarterly in arrears beginning on December 31, 2014. The Margin Loan Agreements contain various affirmative and negative covenants that restrict the activities of BroadbandSPV. The Margin Loan Agreements do not include any financial covenants. The Margin Loan Agreements also contain certain restrictions related to additional indebtedness.

BroadbandSPV's obligations under the Margin Loan Agreements are guaranteed by the Company. In addition, BroadbandSPV's obligations are secured by first priority liens on a portion of the Company's ownership interest in Charter, sufficient for BroadbandSPV to meet its loan to value requirement under the Margin Loan Agreements. Each agreement contains language that indicates that Liberty Broadband, as borrower and transferor of underlying shares as collateral, has the right to exercise all voting, consensual and other powers of ownership pertaining to the transferred shares for all purposes, provided that Liberty Broadband agrees that it will not vote the shares in any manner that would reasonably be expected to give rise to transfer or other certain restrictions. Similarly, the loan agreements indicate that no lender party shall have any voting rights with respect to the shares transferred, except to the extent that a lender party buys any shares in a sale or other disposition made pursuant to the terms of the loan agreements. As of December 31, 2015,  7.0 million shares of Charter with a value of $1.3 billion were pledged as collateral pursuant to the Margin Loans.

In connection with the collar agreement on shares of Time Warner Cable entered into on March 27, 2015, as discussed in note 4, the Company also entered into a $234 million revolving loan agreement. On April 7, 2015, Liberty Broadband drew $40 million on this loan, which was the amount used to match the outstanding call liability due in April 2015. The shares of Time Warner Cable underlying the collar served as collateral for borrowings under the revolving loan agreement. Borrowings outstanding under the revolving loan agreement bore interest at the three-month LIBOR rate plus 0.64%, payable quarterly in arrears beginning on March 31, 2015. The interest rate on the unused portion of the revolving loan agreement was 0.12% per annum. The Company repaid the $40 million drawn on the loan during July 2015 and the agreement was terminated upon unwinding of the Time Warner Cable collar agreement.

TruePosition had a $4 million line of credit, which expired on December 25, 2013, covering standby letters of credit issued for the benefit of TruePosition. Pursuant to the terms of the line of credit, upon its expiration, any issued and outstanding letters of credit remain in effect through the remainder of their respective terms, the last of which expired during the first quarter of 2015. Accordingly, there were no letters of credit outstanding at December 31, 2015. $634 thousand in letters of credit were outstanding as of December 31, 2014. Letters of credit issued under the line of credit prior to its expiration remained collateralized by a cash deposit maintained by the bank (note 3), which was cancelled upon the expiration of the last letter of credit during the first quarter of 2015.

The line of credit bore interest at the rate of four-tenths of 1% per annum on the balance available for issuance of letters of credit. Letters of credit issued under the line of credit bore interest at 1.75%. All interest was payable quarterly. Interest expense related to the line of credit was not significant for the years ended December 31, 2015,  2014, or 2013.

In April 2015, the FASB issued new accounting guidance on the presentation of debt issuance costs,  which requires debt issuance costs related to a recognized debt liability to be presented on the balance sheet as a direct deduction from the debt liability. The new guidance intends to simplify the presentation of debt issuance costs. In August 2015, the FASB issued new accounting guidance on the presentation or subsequent measurement of debt issuance costs related to line of credit arrangements, which provides that such cost may be presented as an asset and amortized ratably over the term of the line of credit arrangement, regardless of whether there are outstanding borrowings on the arrangement. The amendments in these new accounting standards are effective for financial statements issued for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2015 and interim periods within those years.  Early adoption is permitted for financial statements that have not been previously issued and retrospective application is required for each balance sheet presented.  We retrospectively early adopted this new guidance in the fourth quarter of 2015. Prior period amounts have been appropriately restated to reflect this change in presentation of deferred loan costs on the consolidated balance sheets. The adoption of the new guidance resulted in the reclassification of $461 thousand net debt issuance costs previously reported as other assets to be reclassified to debt as of December 31, 2014.