Level 3 Borrowing Costs Weigh on Balance Sheet in Credit Freeze

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Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Level 3 Communications Inc., the unprofitable phone-network operator, may risk running out of cash next year if it fails to seek refinancing for its debt, analysts and investors say.

 

The company, which ended the third quarter with less than $600 million in cash and marketable securities, has almost $700 million in debt coming due through 2010. Falcon Point Capital investor Michael Thomas sold his Level 3 bonds at the end of 2008, unwilling to risk the investment as the recession deepens.

 

“They can’t pay in 2010 without refinancing,” said San Francisco-based Thomas, who owned about $1 million worth of the communications network operator’s bonds before tendering them in December. “It was just too much risk and too much debt.”

 

Full article: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aIggI1hkembU&refer=home