TV Azteca filed for chapter safety on Thursday, taking a step that’s sometimes a prelude to liquidation.
Shareholders permitted the reorganization of firm liabilities via a voluntary chapter continuing (a “concurso mercantil”), with the goal of restructuring monetary obligations underneath judicial supervision.
TV Azteca, owned by billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, insists that this isn’t a chapter, however is as an alternative a preventative measure. The community stated the choice was influenced by structural challenges going through the published tv enterprise resulting from declining promoting income and stress from digital platforms.
The community outlined an ideal storm of adverse elements that pushed the corporate into these proceedings. The TV Azteca assertion pointed to almost 19 years of litigation and tax disputes, a “advanced negotiation with worldwide collectors,” the COVID-19 pandemic and the influence of three.8 billion pesos (US $220.6 million) in authorities licensing charges paid in 2018.
Buying and selling within the broadcaster’s shares on the Mexican Inventory Trade was suspended in 2023 after the corporate did not file company outcomes.
Salinas Pliego — who final month reached an settlement with the Mexican Tax Administration Service (SAT) to pay greater than 32 billion pesos (US $1.86 billion) in overdue tax money owed — refuted declarations that he was going bankrupt.
#GrupoSalinas. La televisora @Azteca entra a concurso mercantil (quiebra técnica) mientras que @ElektraMx, también propiedad de @gruposalinas, reportó pérdidas por casi 20 mil mdp en el último trimestre de 2025. Al tío Richie aún le quedan por pagar 18 mensualidades de su adeudo… pic.twitter.com/Irr0EglvCq
— Jenaro Villamil (@jenarovillamil) February 26, 2026
Responding to a Wednesday social media put up by Jenaro Villamil, the director of the Mexican State Public Broadcasting System, Salinas Pliego stated Villamil and his mates within the authorities “are messing with the fallacious individual.”
“We’ll see you all in 2030 and then you definately’ll discover out if I’m bankrupt,” Salinas Pliego wrote, referencing the following presidential election, for which he’s thought-about a possible candidate.
As for TV Azteca — Mexico’s second-biggest tv broadcaster — El Common columnist Mario Maldonado believes that behind the company message are important obligations that specify the choice.
“TV Azteca carries an estimated complete debt of between US $2 billion and US $2.2 billion and, as well as, faces defaults to collectors in the USA for round US $600 million, a state of affairs that has elevated the authorized and monetary stress on the corporate,” he wrote on Friday.
Maldonado stated that whether or not the chapter proceedings efficiently stabilize the corporate “will rely upon the money circulate the tv station manages to generate in a shrinking promoting market.”
Rafael Rodríguez, TV Azteca’s CEO, implied simply that in an announcement. “It is a final‑resort software geared toward preserving the worth of the corporate, making certain the continuity of its operations, and facilitating the orderly achievement of its obligations with out interrupting its functioning,” he stated.
Beneath Mexican legislation, the “concurso mercantil” goals to hunt an settlement between the corporate and its collectors so as to keep away from a shutdown in a course of that sometimes lasts six months. If a process on restructuring money owed can’t be agreed upon, the corporate’s belongings could be offered off to pay collectors.
With reviews from La Jornada, Proceso, El Common and Reuters
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