Agenda - Council - 05/27/1986 - Laserfiche WebLink

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lng its overall financial plan and financial ability. However, despite the request, North Central has not adequately provided the information. 23. North Central has not provided supporting documentation showing the terms and conditions of its financing avail- able to meet the franchise requirements and operational plans. For the purpose of reviewing its overall finan- cial plan, confirmation of the terms and conditions of financing are necessary. Moreover, North Central has not provided supporting documentation of the terms and conditions of its financing for the purpose of reviewing its impact on the operational plans of the system. 24. The cablesystem has experienced short-term operating expense shortfalls in the recent preceding years. While it is assumed by the Commission that any transferee of the system would attempt to remediate such shortfalls, North Central has failed to demonstrate that it could financially withstand such short-term deficits. 25. The information which has been supplied by North Central represents in large part financial information for six cable systems in Minnesota. The Commission represents one of those six systems. The Commission finds it impossible to analyze the financial ability of North Central relative to this system without system specific financial information. 26. North Central has established as its financial goals a minimum operating margin of 40%, subscriber penetrations from 43% to 55%, and a minimum rate of return on invest- ment of 15%. North Central has not supplied sufficient financial information and documentation for the Commis- sion to determine whether its financial plans will achieve the aforementioned goals. As a result of exist- ing experience in the system, the Commission determines these goals and projections are unreasonable. 27. Absent sufficient financial information from North Central, the Commission determines that the financial ability of North Central to meet existing and future obligations is inadequate. The Commission also notes for the record that the existence of sufficient finan- cial information would not in and of itself have led to a finding of adequate financial ability. The existence of such information would have served only as a basis for the Commission to perform a complete financial analysis which may or may not have resulted in a deter- mination that North Central was financially able to fulfill existing and future obligations. - 5 -