Lee cancels $1 billion bond offering
Davenport-based newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises Inc., citing market conditions, has withdrawn a high-yield bond sale and concurrent stock offering designed to refinance all of its existing debt and avoid a bankruptcy filing that until recently market participants had deemed likely. Lee originally intended to bring a $1.055 billion junk bond offering to market late last month, but delayed the deal and converted part of it to a loan. Market participants said that disappointing earnings news from newspaper companies including McClatchy Co. and Gatehouse Media Inc. in recent days may have hampered Lee’s efforts, and that the company’s financial problems made investors wary.