American Media extends CEO’s contract through 2021
American Media, owner of the National Enquirer, Star and Men’s Fitness, quietly gave CEO David Pecker a five-year contract extension that carries him through 2021.
Compensation details of the new deal could not be learned, but Pecker just completed a contract with a compensation package of about $1.5 million a year.
One source close to the situation at American Media said the board “extended and upped” Pecker’s package.
News of the new contract was buried in the details about a new refinancing deal that cut the interest rate on the 11 ¹/₂ percent junk bonds due at the end of 2017.
The first lien notes now carry an interest rate of 5 ¹/₂ percent are due in 2020. The new arrangement will shave about $20 million from annual interest payments on AMI’s roughly $330 million in total debt.
Chatham Assets is both the majority stockholder, with a stake of about 78 percent, and a major bondholder. Leon Cooperman holds just under 10 percent of the stock.