Lee Enterprises (LEE)

[bradford86]

you are going against me. welcome aboard. people are paying me 25% overnight rates to short against me.

http://beta.fool.com/bradford86/2012/01/25/lee-enterprises-squeeze-central/

[keekee]

Can't think of any better short than this. Shorted 7000 at $1.69

[bradford86]

4-6 long term

i'm mostly out by 3 cost basis of .60

[bradford86]

my ability to swing large positions is greatly diminished from where i was 1.5 years ago.

thanks china!

oh well, i'll get back soon enough. the climb

[nelson1234]

bradford, I still own a decent number of shares....although I sold bunches.

best.

[arpro]

I picked up some this morning, nice close...GL
What do you think where is this headed?

[arpro]

I picked up some this morning, nice close...GL
What do you think where is this headed?

[bradford86]

i'm the only one here, and a silence falls on the crowd.

[bradford86]

short squeeze woooooooo

[bradford86]

yes, but it might pull back simply due to sellers..

right now i can loan my shares at 25% interest. that's ridiculous.

[bradford86]

http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_L/threadview?m=te&bn=10597&tid=9567&mid=9567&tof=1&frt=2#9567

I am using algos to sell out on a penny by penny basis as it marches higher and to trade the churn in case it starts to tumble...

I think that in a few months we are $2+ easy.

Glen
http://www.finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=lee

The harder they fall, the faster they rise --- especially because the risks they fell on disappear as of January 30th!

Glen

I've seen it before.
I'll see it again.
I'm going to make money being prescient.

[nelson1234]

I sold over half my LEE at $1.36 today. I added at just over .70 a few weeks back, so I'm pretty happy. Its also one of my picks in the PSL contest...although the plan was to double down but I was tooo damn lazy.

I dont know if it will go higher or lower....my guess short term is higher with momo (and could be much higher with enuf mo) but who knows. I believe fair value is pretty close to where we are now.....but that could change if the sector (I also own GCI, and follow MNI and AHC pretty closely) moves higher due to improving ad trends, and perhaps trends that show that digital is not only growing (we know it is), but can become a large profit center.

best.

[IPO$]

is this one going to continue heading north?

[bradford86]

haha, cut at .71, goes to 1.11

fortunately it's still oversized... and i was able to lower my cost basis via trading activities from $1.00 to $0.66

[bradford86]

just in time! I cut my position size in half as this was 50% of my portfolio, now it is 25%.

Why did I do such a think when I think this is worth $3?

Look at TSX: YLO and tell me I'm crazy.

http://www.globalspeculation.com/archives/817

[Depcom]

Looks like volume is starting to pick up.

[bradford86]

what are you looking at these days?

[nelson1234]

bradford, I hope we go lower too...I dont have any trading shares having dumped for a total .16 share gain.

I like LEE...although not as much as you.

Love to see low fifties on tax loss selling.

[bradford86]

LEE @ $0.70 on open of bankruptcy announcement / non-event

score. hope we go lower. meanwhile the markets are imploding. that should help

[$King]

LEE @ .7676

[nelson1234]

Sold all my trading shares at .89 for close to a 31% gain on those, as planned. Then I bought half of those back just under .83.

And I got a bunch I have from the .50's...

...if you include the many times I traded since it was first at a buck, (when I advocated here and on the vmc board to trade it, the dangers of bankruptcy were far greater than most were giving it credit for), I probably own my shares at way under a buck. And, if you include the trade when I sold in the $3's on the mention of the refi before it really tanked....then LEE is one of my top winners for the year.

I'm a goddam bad-ass LEE trader. Of course cred to Tim St for his rec's.

[bradford86]

nah, i own it. why do you want me to sell it?

[nelson1234]

MNI's gave strong guidance today....they say the newspapaer ad market is recovering. Since they were basically an option stub, like LEE....they are up 38%. I was too cheap in my bid this morning for mni, but after it started moving, decided to buy a bunch more LEE for a trade under .69....and that one's working so far...

GCI (which I own) also announced decent guidance this morning for their 2012 full year revenue....and also stated the ad market is doing better. I didnt add GCI since its already up so much.

best.

[airbus300]

From an article:
Lee, which will file for the prepackaged relief with the U.S Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, said the plan will help preserve 87 percent of interests of stockholders and all interests of creditors and other business partners.

[Zunobira]

Will the Common shares be Wiped Out
as because it's now BK?

[realfast95]

LEE - please tell me you sold LEE or never owned it, please!

[bradford86]

interesting perspective. thanks nelson.

[nelson1234]

re lee

I am long...and happy today...I didnt trade out, but would have sold some it it went to around .90.

I think short term, and mid term as well, LEE offers a good trading opp. Longer term, I think the decline of the newspaper industry, coupled with its huge debt, will eventually prove too much. But that could be several years from now.

best.

[bradford86]

mike what is on your radar? i canceled my premium subscription (wasn't a value add since i dropped the whole china growth stocks board thing and all that jazz)

lee/ dexo / meg. what is in your bucket for buys?

[bradford86]

i liek it.

[bradford86]

glen bradford checking in. finally looks like the bottom is in.

[airbus300]

Pre-package bankruptcy to be filed soon. Shares to remain intact with some dillution.

[sonnyman]

RADAR LEE NOW IMO

[casetheace]

It's Oct 2nd and where still stuck in the low 80 cent range. Can't get enough buying power to get these shorts to stop putting up monster ask bids to stop runs. Think you got a 34k block at .84 thats hidden, and a 49k block at 89 if we can get over these the next two weeks it can take a dollar down. Just need a market recovery and some covering taking profits and tons of buying power will get us out of these shorts. This is to good of a company to keep down.

[livinginstyle]

$2 by Oct 1st.

[livinginstyle]

Great opportunity!

[chmcnfunds]

LEE currently up ~50%.

LEE

[chmcnfunds]

Lee Enterprises: Buying Opportunity Of A Lifetime?

September 13, 2011

At the quarter ended June 26, 2011, Lee Enterprises (LEE) generated $134.3 million in free cash flow (which I'm defining as operating cash flows minus investing cash flows) over the trailing twelve months. As of the close of business on Monday, September 12, the entire company was for sale at only $34 million (which is the market cap after the upcoming dilution of 6.74 million shares, which I'll get to shortly.)

Last Thursday evening, Lee announced a monumental debt refinancing (pdf) that will prevent the company from going Chapter 11 and having the shareholders get wiped out. The market reaction on Friday was to move the stock from $0.60 a share all the way up to... $0.62. Then the following Monday it actually went down to $.615. So if any researcher believes markets are always efficient, that's an anomaly they'll definitely want to check out. Even though Lee had been priced as if its death were imminent, the big announcement that stockholders escaped the executioner's ax barely budged the stock price at all.

With its current free cash flow, Lee is priced at 0.25 times TTM free cash flow. No, that's not a typo. That means that if you bought $1,000 worth of Lee stock right now, the slice of Lee that you'd own could expect to make back that $1,000 in a few months.

Typically, stocks are priced that cheaply only because Wall Street expects the company to have a strong chance of dying. And indeed, that was the case with Lee up until last Thursday. If it had not been able to refinance the approximately $1 billion in debt it had coming due April 2012, then shareholders were going to be wiped out.

However, that threat is now virtually gone, as you can see in the CEO's letter to shareholders here (pdf). Lee has refinanced $864.5 million of the debt, and even if Lee cannot refinance the remaining $175 million coming due in April (the worst case scenario), it will file a prepackaged Chapter 11 filing that will not wipe out shareholders, but could involve having to issue a number of new shares in order to convert that debt into equity, which would improve Lee's balance sheet in exchange for diluting the current shareholders. However, Lee's stock is so ridiculously cheap right now that even if the number of shares was quadrupled, it would still mean you owned your shares at 1x TTM free cash flow.

Next we turn our attention to Lee's ability to service and pay down its debts. The metric to look at for this is not free cash flow, since that's an after-tax figure, but earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), since interest on loans is paid with pre-tax dollars. The TTM figure for Lee was $159 million (which does not count writedowns and other non-cash expenses, of which Lee has had a lot), while the interest amount paid on the refinanced loans, which begins June 2012, will be $80 million. This results in an interest coverage ratio of about 2.0, which is a safe level.

There remains the $175 million in Pulitzer acquisition debt remaining to be refinanced, which is due in April 2012. For purposes of this exercise, let's assume Lee waits until February and refinances all of the debt rather than converting some or all of it into equity. As of the last 10Q, Lee had paid down $97.7 million of debt in the trailing twelve months, for a rate of $8.1 million a month.

Between now and the time it refinances the Pulitzer debt, it should have paid off about $55 million of that principal, since substantially all of its free cash flow will be directed at paying down that debt. So the amount it will need to refi will be $120 million, and even if it needs to pay 15% for that debt, it will mean $18 million in interest.

In short, the pre-tax cash flow I would expect it to have will be about $60 million per year considering the total amount of interest at the most pessimistic of assumptions. At a 38% tax rate, that means there will be about $37 million in free cash flow next year, which Lee will use to continue paying down principal on its tier 1 debt. Just as paying down principal on the mortgage of your house builds your equity (i.e., ownership) in your house, so too does a company paying down debt increase the amount of its assets owned by its shareholders. Plus as time goes on, interest payments will have less and less of a burden on Lee.

So the bottom line for equity holders is that Lee will be rising in value by about $37 million starting in April 2012 (and accelerating after that), while the entire company is currently on sale for $34 million.

The Moat Around Lee's Castle

Lee's qualitative story is quite interesting. As it says, "everyone knows" that newspapers are dying.

However, Lee Enterprises is much more of a small newspaper play, which makes its economics different. The average size of a Lee paper is a circulation of around 25,000. These often are towns without local TV stations, so other than the Internet and billboards, so if you own a car dealership, grocery store, or some other local business, the only game in town if you want to advertise to the largest group of people in your community, at the highest return on investment, is the local paper.

Here are the reasons Lee Enterprises has a competitive advantage with its papers:

1. Economies of scale

Local newspapers gravitate toward economies of scale. The winning paper makes money, and any competitors in the same town are pretty much going to struggle forever with higher per-unit costs than the winning paper. Not only are there economies of scale with distribution, but also with the reputation these papers have built in their local communities.

2. Demand based on customer captivity

Reading the newspaper becomes a habit, and it's a continual flow of information unlike, say, a typical book, which you buy only once.

Moreover, if you want news about your country or maybe even your state, you have multiple sources of information, and often they're free. But if you want in-depth information about your small town, the local newspaper is pretty much the only place for you to go.

3. Supply of information

Newspapers have established relationships with local institutions like the police and city hall, so the local reporters can pick up the phone and dial the digits and know their call will be answered. The local papers also have the inside scoop on all the stuff interesting to locals like the high school sports, the obituaries, births, and so on.

Obviously the overall franchises are not as good as they used to be. There's been a lot of information available online for free now including, unfortunately, the newspapers themselves that for some reason have thought they needed to offer everything for free online. However, as of this past summer, Lee has begun rolling out paywalls for its papers, so it's definitely solving this problem over time. (The new paywalls may also show a boost to Lee's revenues beginning this quarter, but that's another article entirely.)

There is a pervasive amount of pessimism about Lee Enterprises right now. It's on sale for about one year's worth of free cash flow even after the most pessimistic of the realistic dilution assumptions, so this means this business could have an extremely large margin of safety. Finally, however, it's important to take a long-term perspective as a shareholder of Lee. It may take days for Wall Street to realize the extraordinary value of this company, or it could take many years.

With the amount of free cash flow generated by LEE, combined with the fact that going to zero no longer looms thanks to last week's refinancing, this stock could very well be the buying opportunity of a lifetime.

Disclosure: I am long LEE.
_____________________________________________________________
http://seekingalpha.com/article/293357-lee-enterprises-buying-opportunity-of-a-lifetime

LEE

[casetheace]

NOW ALL WE NEED IS FOR US BACKERS TO BUY BUY BUY cause we need to get rid of the shorts or it ain't moving, shorts came in at the bell with fury, really thought we see a dollar today.

[chmcnfunds]

Lee Enterprises and lenders agree on refinancing

Sept. 8, 2011, 6:00 p.m. EDT

Davenport, U.S.A., Sep 08, 2011 (Thomson Reuters ONE via COMTEX) -- DAVENPORT, Iowa (Sept. 8, 2011) --

Lee Enterprises, Incorporated LEE +2.22% , a leading print and digital provider of local news, information and advertising in 53 markets, has reached agreement with a significant majority of the holders of its revolving credit and term loan facilities to provide for extension of maturities to 2015 and 2017.

"This is excellent news for Lee stockholders and employees," said Mary Junck, Lee chairman and chief executive officer. "It will allow us to refinance our bank debt on good terms and keep Lee on solid financial footing as we continue to expand our digital platforms, build audiences, drive revenue performance and improve our balance sheet."

Lee's current credit facility will be amended and extended beyond its current maturity of April 2012 in a structure of first and second lien debt. The first lien consists of a term loan of $689.5 million, along with a $40 million revolving credit facility that is not expected to be drawn at closing. The second lien consists of a $175 million term loan.

Among provisions of the arrangements:

- The first lien term loan of $689.5 million carries interest at LIBOR plus 6.25 percent with a LIBOR floor of 1.25 percent. The maturity is December 2015. Interest on the $40 million revolver is LIBOR plus 5.0 percent with a LIBOR floor of 1.25 percent. Quarterly amortization payments for the term loan total $10 million annually in the first year, beginning June 2012, increasing to $12 million in the second year and to $13.5 million thereafter. A quarterly cash flow sweep will also be used to reduce debt. Covenants include a minimum interest coverage ratio, maximum total leverage ratio and capital expenditure limitation.

- The second lien term loan of $175 million carries an interest rate of 15 percent and matures in April 2017. It requires no amortization and has no affirmative financial covenants. Creditors will share in the issuance of approximately 6,744,000 shares of Lee Common Stock, an amount equal to 13 percent of outstanding shares on a pro forma basis as of the closing date.

- As a condition to the agreement, Lee will be required to refinance the remainder of its debt, the Pulitzer Notes, with a separate $175 million loan still to be arranged. The current obligation matures in April 2012.

Additional details are included in documents being filed today with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Carl Schmidt, Lee vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer, said the method for implementing the agreement is expected to be determined within the next few weeks. "Getting the support of more than 90 percent of our creditors is a significant milestone and allows us to turn our attention to refinancing the Pulitzer Notes. Assuming successful completion of that financing, we expect to implement the transactions out of court if we can get lender support up to 95 percent. Otherwise we will seek to implement the transactions through a favorable prepackaged Chapter 11 filing. Such a filing, if necessary, would be expected to have no adverse impact on company operations, employees, vendors, advertisers or subscribers. Subject to dilution resulting from the issuance of the new shares, current stockholders' interests in the equity of the company would be preserved."

The Blackstone Group is serving as Lee's financial adviser for the transactions.

In a letter to stockholders and employees, Junck said:

"The refinancing will remove a cloud that has obscured Lee's formidable strengths in our markets, how far we have advanced against the challenge of the national economy, and how successfully we are seizing emerging opportunities in the changing media landscape:

- We have more journalists in our markets than all of our competitors combined and provide news vital to our communities. Without us, most local news would never come to light.

- We also have more sales representatives, and no competitor can match the results we deliver for advertisers. Because of our strong products and sales culture, Lee has outpaced the industry in advertising revenue performance for eight years running.

- More than 80 percent of adults in our larger markets read or use our print and digital products each week. More than two-thirds of 18- to 29-year-olds read or use our newspapers. We deliver news, information and advertising around the clock on our websites, mobile sites, smartphone apps and tablet apps.

- We continue to drive rapid digital growth, with year-over-year digital advertising revenue up 22 percent in the June quarter. Unique visitors to our digital sites increased 29 percent to 21.6 million in the month of June versus a year ago, while mobile page views jumped 220 percent. This summer, we have deployed latest-generation iPhone applications in all 53 of our markets and upgraded our smartphone apps for local sports. We also are in the process of rolling out iPad apps in 10 of our larger markets, with others to follow.

- Through the recession and the slow economic recovery, we have continued to readjust our business model and produce strong cash flow, allowing us to reduce debt by $760 million since June 2005.

"In brief, we believe the refinancing agreement, together with our many strengths and accomplishments, helps reinforce a solid foundation for Lee's future."

Page 1Page 2


FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS -- The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. This news release contains information that may be deemed forward-looking that is based largely on our current expectations, and is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Among such risks, trends and other uncertainties, which in some instances are beyond our control, are our ability to generate cash flows and maintain liquidity sufficient to service our debt, comply with or obtain amendments or waivers of the financial covenants contained in our credit facilities, if necessary, and to refinance our debt as it comes due. Other risks and uncertainties include the impact and duration of continuing adverse economic conditions, changes in advertising demand, potential changes in newsprint and other commodity prices, energy costs, interest rates, availability of credit, labor costs, legislative and regulatory rulings, difficulties in achieving planned expense reductions, maintaining employee and customer relationships, increased capital costs, maintaining our listing status on the NYSE, competition and other risks detailed from time to time in our publicly filed documents. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact (including statements containing the words "may", "will", "would", "could", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "plan", "project", "consider" and similar expressions) generally should be considered forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date of this release. We do not undertake to publicly update or revise our forward-looking statements.

Contact: [e-mail], [phone]

This announcement is distributed by Thomson Reuters on behalf of Thomson Reuters clients.

The owner of this announcement warrants that:

(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and

(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the

information contained therein.

Source: Lee Enterprises Inc. via Thomson Reuters ONE

HUG#1545246

Copyright (C) 2011 Thomson Reuters ONE. All rights reserved.
_______________________________________________________________
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lee-enterprises-and-lenders-agree-on-refinancing-2011-09-08?pagenumber=1

LEE

[chmcnfunds]

LEE up over 20% this morning whereas the overall market is level.

Quote:
____________________________________________________________
Lee: A Great Opportunity
August 23, 2011

Lee Enterprises (LEE) is apparently in the middle of a crisis situation. I love the following chart. I bought more shares today.


Forced Liquidation = Great Opportunity

It feels like people are being forced to liquidate. My dad called me and asked me to sell because the price is falling. I said, hold on, be patient... let me re-evaluate my investment hypothesis. My father was very concerned about running into troubles with the SEC and the NYSE. Let me put these to rest. Lee Enterprises has fallen significantly in price and as such is below compliance with their listing standards. Do listing standards matter to me? Not really. Here's why.

Market Capitalization

The price that you can buy all of the outstanding shares of a company for at the current price is called its market capitalization. Truth be told, if you own all of those shares, theoretically you own all of the future discounted cash flows that the company produces. Fortunately, I don't see listing standards as a prerequisite for owning a company outright.

Current Price


As we push 52-week lows, the price to value ratio continues to grow. How much would you pay for a company that has paid off $100M in debt over the last 12 months and is sporting free cash flow of $94.5M for those same months as well? How about around $33M. Sounds like a good deal to me, but wait... what's the catch?

Tons of Ugly Debt

It is true that Lee is presently trying to work through a debt-exchange that results in >13% dilution and a re-negotion of interest rates. Goldman Sachs and Monarch Alternative Capital are all for the debt exchange. My advice is that if you want to consider Lee as an investment opportunity, take a read at this 8-K and you'll wonder how something is trading at 66 cents when they just made 22 cents this last quarter. I'm prepared for lower prices, in situations like this it makes sense to keep cash available for unreal bargains.

Disclosure: I am long LEE.

This article is tagged with: Long & Short Ideas, Long Ideas, Services, Publishing - Newspapers, United States
_____________________________________________________________
http://seekingalpha.com/article/289376-lee-a-great-opportunity

LEE

[airbus300]

desmoines register dot com:

An Aug. 15 NYSE letter to the company notes that continued listing requires an average market capitalization of not less than $50 million over a 30-day period or shareholder equity of not less than $50 million.

Based on Friday's close of 71 cents, Lee's market value was $27.9 million. The company's shareholder equity for the third quarter ending June 26 was a negative $76.1 million as a result of a $162 million after-tax impairment charge taken during the quarter.

[chmcnfunds]

LEE doing well today (up 4%) on low volume (107,000 shares traded) although the overall market has been down. The chart is shaping up nicely as a technical trade. Most indicators suggest a bullish trend:

LEE - Daily Candlesticks



LEE

[nelson1234]

mike, I'm not advocting LEE..it is very speculative...although I will continue to trade it if I can get my buy price.

best.

[MikeDDKing]

Thanks for the update on LEE and the note on the WSJ.

I'm out of LEE for now as it just seemed to get too risky as the market went south. I may take another look but I think there are plenty of other stocks that have better risk/reward in this market.

[nelson1234]

Mike, article from last week's wall street journal (8/11) states that 2/3 of LEE's lenders have agreed to a plan whereby the $675 mil of debt is refid at 7.5%, and two tranches of $175 mil are refid at 15%, for a combined 10% or so I think. Plus, LEE gives 13% of the company to debtholders.

LEE needs 90% of debt holders to agree. They say they might have an announcement by months end.

Not an awful deal. But I have seen several times the minority debt holders never giving in...so the deal is by no means near done, plus its really just a rumour.

Also, you mentioned that you cant access the full WSJ article b/c you dont subscribe. At least recently, if the WSJ link is posted under Google Finance News, you can often get the whole article b/c they've issued a 'free pass' through google finance links.

For instance, if you go to Google Finance, enter LEE, and go to the news section, the article you mentioned, and the newer one I mentioned are both fully available.

best.

[MikeDDKing]

There is also a WSJ article. I can only read the intro since I'm not a subscriber.

Lenders Back Publisher Lee's Debt-Exchange Plan

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903366504576486560957047854.html#articleTabs_comments

[airbus300]

August 3, 2011, 5:15 PM ET Lee Enterprises to Swap Debt or File for Bankruptcy

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/08/03/lee-enterprises-to-swap-debt-or-file-for-bankruptcy/

[chmcnfunds]

It has been holding pretty steady the last few days despite the overall down market. Been a lot less volatile. Maybe it will take off once the federal debt issue is resolved:

LEE - Daily Candlesticks



LEE

[Chodeadactyl]

LEE Definately look'n good at these levels!