Creditors and iHeartMedia reach debt restructuring impasse

SAN ANTONIO – One of the world’s largest radio and billboard companies says it may have reached an impasse in its efforts to persuade creditors to restructure its massive debt.

The San Antonio-based iHeartMedia Inc. warned this past week in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that a “significant gap” persists between company proposals for extending its timetable to pay the debt and what creditors have proposed.

The company says in its filing that it “is assessing whether it will continue discussions.”

The former Clear Channel Communications is facing about $20 billion in debt amassed when it was taken private in 2008 by private equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, a company co-founded by former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The company must pay off almost half of that debt by 2019.