Carlos Slim to exercise New York Times warrants: report

[February 20, 2014]  (Reuters) — Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim plans to increase his stake in The New York Times Co by exercising at the end of this year warrants he received when he made a major loan to the newspaper company, according to a report in Bloomberg.

The report, which cited a person familiar with the matter, said Slim plans to hold his stake in the New York Times Co. He currently owns about 8 percent of common shares though this will increase to about 17 percent when he exercises the warrants, according to the New York Times Co latest proxy filing.

A spokesman for Slim was not immediately available to comment. A spokeswoman for the New York Times Co declined to comment.

Slim's warrants were part of deal he made with the company in 2009 when he loaned it $250 million during the height of the economic crisis when many big city newspapers reported plunges in advertising revenue.

Slim received the option to buy 15.9 million Class A shares at $6.36 each. The warrants expire in January 2015 and the New York Times repaid the loan almost three years ago.

Shares of the New York Times Co closed down 1.2 percent at $14.62 on Wednesday.

The New York Times Co, which publishes the namesake newspaper, is controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family through Class B shares.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York and Christine Murray in Mexico City; editing by Eric Walsh)

[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.