Getty Images said Monday it has support from all its major financial stakeholder groups for a comprehensive restructuring: the Getty family and affiliates of Koch Equity Development have committed up to $533 million of new equity, holders of 83.5 percent of its unsecured bonds have agreed to retire $270 million of senior unsecured notes, and secured lenders have agreed to cut interest obligations and extend maturities. The company plans a prepackaged Chapter 11 filing in the coming weeks, limited to certain US entities and expected to complete by year end, after which the two equity investors will own 100 percent of the reorganized, privately held company, with Koch also providing up to $143 million to fund the process.
Operations, contributors and customers are expected to be unaffected, and vendors paid in full in the ordinary course. The restructuring follows the collapse in July of Getty’s planned $3.7 billion merger with Shutterstock after UK regulators required a divestiture, missed interest payments in September, and the New York Stock Exchange suspending trading in the stock on September 29.