With Robert Sillerman's having so far failed to take SFX back into private ownership, alongside investor unrest over that plan, some rather odd 'extra-curricular' share transactions and blocked and then unblocked payments ti content owners from SFX subsidiary Beatport, SFX's latest bad news is recent decision by ratings agencies Moodys and Standard & Poor to downgrade the music firm's corporate credit rating. The company has said that it is having to dip into its cash reserves to a greater extent than planned, mainly because it was having to make more upfront payments in relation to its current programme of festivals.
The spate of bad news has contributed to a slump in the company's share price. Shares went to a low of 52 cents, compared to a share price of $3.70 at the start of the year, and the $5.25 per share rate Sillerman was, at one point, proposing to pay in order to regain control of his company. The company floated at a price of $13 per share in October 2013.
http://www.factmag.com/2015/08/17/sfx-share-price-plummets/
http://quotes.wsj.com/SFXE
http://nypost.com/2015/02/25/investors-livid-over-sillermans-insulting-sfx-stock-bid/
Sony Corp, owner of Sony BMG and co-owners of the newly expanded Sony ATV, has had its credit ratting downgraded to 'junk' status for the first time. Fitch cut electronic giant Panasonic’s rating by two notches to BB and Sony three notches to BB minus on Thursday, the first time one of the three major ratings agencies have put the creditworthiness of either company into junk-bond territory. Sony, which has forecast a full-year profit of $1.63 billion helped by the sale of a chemicals business to a Japanese state bank, announced plans to raise $1.9 billion through a convertible bond before the latest rating downgrade.
