Nexstar Buys Five TV Stations in Four Markets for $103.3M

Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. NXST (“Nexstar”) announced today that it and Mission Broadcasting, Inc. (“Mission”) entered into definitive agreements to acquire five television stations in four markets for total consideration of $103.25 million in transactions that are expected to be immediately accretive in the first full year of operations following closing. Under the terms of the purchase agreements, Nexstar will acquire stations in Des Moines, Iowa, Rock Island, Illinois and Sioux City, Iowa from entities related to Citadel Communications, L.P. for $88 million and will immediately begin operating the three stations pursuant to a Time Brokerage Agreement. The Des Moines station will be acquired pursuant to a stock purchase agreement while the Rock Island and Sioux City station acquisitions are structured as asset purchase agreements. Mission will acquire two stations in Binghamton, New York from Stainless Broadcasting, L.P. for $15.25 million in a transaction structured as an asset purchase agreement. The acquisitions will be funded through internal sources, borrowings under the existing credit facilities and future credit market transactions. The planned station acquisitions will further expand Nexstar's local television broadcasting platform with stations that are geographically complementary to Nexstar's operating base and present significant financial and operating synergies. Upon closing this and other previously announced transactions, Nexstar's portfolio of stations that it owns, operates, programs or to which it provides sales and other services will increase to 96 stations in 51 markets reaching approximately 14.6% of all U.S. television households. In the first twelve months following the closing of the transaction, the five acquired stations are expected to contribute approximately $35 million in incremental net revenue. Giving effect to approximately $3 million in projected synergies, the acquisitions are expected to generate over $17 million in additional broadcast cash flow and are expected to provide free cash flow accretion in the first year of approximately 5% over the levels expected to be generated by Nexstar's existing operations and other previously announced acquisitions (definitions and disclosures regarding non-GAAP financial information are included later in this announcement). The purchase price for the five stations represents a multiple of approximately 6.0 times the expected 2014 broadcast cash flow of the acquired stations after giving effect to anticipated operating improvements and synergies identified by Nexstar.
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