Hollywood studio hires help for debt

MUMBAI: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has hired investment bank Moelis & Co to help it restructure mammoth debts of about $3.7 billion, several media reports say. The studio behind classics such as the James Bond films and The Wizard of Oz is paying almost $300 million a year in interest, and must make a $1 billion repayment in 2011.

The revered studio was bought by a group of investors in 2004 for about $5 billion but the global credit crunch and recession has stymied efforts to raise equity in order to reduce its debts.

MGM funds its movie production through its massive film library, which boasts about 4000 titles and more than 10,000 television episodes, an archive which earns the company about $500 million annually.