TORONTO - A spokeswoman for Canwest Global Communications Corp. said it's "business as usual" as it faced a Friday deadline with its bankers that could see the media company default on some of its debt or be forced to slash costs.
Rumours were circulating that the media giant was planning to either cut more jobs at its flagship National Post daily in Toronto, or shut down the paper.
'I'm in the same building and they look busy putting the paper together," company representative Phyllise Gelfand said in an interview.
'It's business as usual."
She also declined to comment on whether Canwest was making any changes to its operations.
'I don't have any information to share," she said.
Canwest stock fell one cent to 35 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange in late afternoon trading.
The Winnipeg-based company, carrying a $3.9-billion debt load overall, is riding a deadline for renegotiating terms of a debt that represents a small portion of its total debt.
The DBRS rating agency says that if Canwest fails to renegotiate or repay about $100 million it owes by the end of the week, then the company would be in default.
DBRS has also placed Canwest under further review on concern it is not currently in compliance with bank covenants regarding a $300-million credit line.
John Douglas, a spokesman for Canwest, said earlier Friday that no additional details were available from the company.
Canwest has been struggling to sell several of its non-core assets in an attempt to pay off its debts, incurred from major acquisitions of the former Southam newspaper chain in 2000 and the Alliance Atlantis TV company in 2007.
Earlier this month, Canwest placed its five E! network conventional television stations on the block, though none of them have sold yet.
On Wednesday, Canwest announced it's selling part of its stake in sports broadcaster The Score for $6.62 million.
