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Debt
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Dec. 31, 2014
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| Debt | Debt Chapter 11 Filing. On September 15, 2014, NII Holdings, Inc. and eight of its U.S. and Luxembourg-domiciled subsidiaries, including NII Capital Corp. and NIIT, filed voluntary petitions seeking relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court. Since September 15, 2014, five additional subsidiaries of NII Holdings, Inc. have filed voluntary petitions seeking relief under Chapter 11 in the Bankruptcy Court, with four subsidiaries filing on October 8, 2014 and one subsidiary filing on January 25, 2015. These Chapter 11 filings constituted an event of default under the NII Capital Corp. and NIIT senior notes; however, the holders of these senior notes are currently precluded from taking any action with respect to such events of default under the Bankruptcy Code. As a result of the commencement of the Chapter 11 cases, the obligations evidenced by the NII Capital Corp. and NIIT senior notes are included in liabilities subject to compromise on our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2014. See Note 2 for more information. The financings included in the table below are considered not subject to compromise.
Bank Loans. In December 2011, Nextel Brazil borrowed funds from two Brazilian banks and utilized the proceeds of those borrowings to repay the remaining unpaid purchase price relating to the spectrum it acquired in June 2011. Both of the loans from the Brazilian banks were denominated in Brazilian reais. In the first of the two local bank financings, we borrowed the equivalent of $351.8 million that was required to be repaid semi-annually over a five-year period with principal payable beginning in May 2014. In the second quarter of 2013, we repaid all amounts outstanding under this local bank financing utilizing a portion of the proceeds from the issuance of our 7.875% senior notes. In the second transaction, we borrowed the equivalent of $341.2 million that is required to be repaid quarterly over a seven-year period beginning March 2014. The loan accrues interest at a floating interest rate of 115% of the Brazilian local borrowing rate (13.40% and 11.39% as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively). Because this loan is denominated in Brazilian reais, the payments for principal and interest will fluctuate in U.S. dollars based on changes in the exchange rate of the Brazilian real relative to the U.S. dollar. In October 2012, Nextel Brazil entered into a Brazilian real-denominated bank loan agreement, under which Nextel Brazil borrowed the equivalent of approximately $196.9 million. This loan agreement has a floating interest rate equal to 113.9% of the local Brazilian borrowing rate (13.27% and 11.28% as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively). Borrowings under this loan agreement have a three-year borrowing period, a two-year repayment term beginning in 2015 and a final maturity of October 2017. As of December 31, 2014, we were not in compliance with the net debt financial covenants included in each of Nextel Brazil's outstanding local bank loans. Because of our noncompliance at the December 31 measurement date, we classified the principal amounts outstanding under these local bank loans as current liabilities in our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2014. In February 2015, Nextel Brazil and the lenders providing the local bank loans entered into standstill agreements under which the lenders agreed that they would not seek remedies under the provisions of the agreements related to Nextel Brazil's failure to satisfy the financial covenants in the loan agreements in the period before September 15, 2015 and that further principal repayment obligations due between the signing date and September 15, 2015 would be suspended. In addition, the standstill agreements formally commit the lenders to sign amendments, which we refer to as the second amendments, once certain conditions are met that implement permanent amendments to the terms of the local bank loans, including with respect to the financial covenants and principal repayment schedule for these loans. Among others, these conditions include:
In the event of a breach of one or more of the conditions listed above, the lenders providing the local bank loans have the right to terminate the standstill agreement and exercise all remedies under the agreements in place, including but not limited to declaring an event of default for noncompliance with the financial covenants and/or nonpayment of amounts due under the repayment schedule. Following the declaration of an event of default, the lenders will have the right to accelerate the loans and proceed with claims against the collateral. Concurrent with the execution of the standstill agreements, Nextel Brazil and the lenders entered into amendments to the agreements relating to the local bank loans, which we refer to as the first amendments, under which Nextel Brazil granted the lenders a security interest over amounts held at any given time in certain collection accounts maintained with each lender. These first amendments also adjust the interest rates on the loans. Equipment Financing Facilities. In April 2012, Nextel Brazil entered into a U.S. dollar-denominated loan agreement with the China Development Bank, under which Nextel Brazil is able to borrow up to $500.0 million to finance infrastructure equipment and certain other costs related to the deployment of its WCDMA network. This financing has a floating interest rate based on LIBOR plus 2.90% (3.16% and 3.15% as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively) and may limit our ability to pay dividends and other upstream payments. Loans under this agreement have a three-year borrowing period, a seven-year repayment term beginning in 2015 and a final maturity of June 2022. Assets purchased using the amounts borrowed under Nextel Brazil's equipment financing facility are pledged as collateral. In July 2011, Nextel Mexico entered into a U.S. dollar-denominated loan agreement with the China Development Bank, under which Nextel Mexico is entitled to borrow up to $375.0 million to finance infrastructure equipment and certain other costs related to the deployment of its WCDMA network in Mexico. This vendor financing has a floating interest rate based on LIBOR plus 2.80% (3.06% and 3.05% as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively) and may limit our ability to pay dividends and other upstream payments. Loans under this agreement have a final maturity of ten years, with a three-year borrowing period and a seven-year repayment term commencing in 2014. Assets purchased using the amounts borrowed under Nextel Mexico's equipment financing facility are pledged as collateral. As of the June 30, 2014 measurement date, we were not in compliance with certain financial covenants in our equipment financing facilities in Brazil and Mexico. In December 2014, Nextel Brazil and Nextel Mexico and the lender under the equipment financing facilities agreed to amendments to those facilities that removed all financial covenants beginning with the December 31, 2014 measurement date and continuing through the June 30, 2017 measurement date. In exchange for covenant relief, Nextel Brazil granted the lender of its equipment financing facility preferential rights to the amounts held in certain bank accounts, and Nextel Mexico's parent company, Nextel International Uruguay, LLC, granted the lender of its equipment financing facility a pledge on the shares it holds in Nextel Mexico. In addition, Nextel Brazil and Nextel Mexico have the option to defer principal amortization payments in exchange for an upfront payment of 17% of the amounts outstanding under the equipment financing facilities on August 31, 2014. As a result of the amendment of our equipment financing facility in Mexico, we classified the principal amount outstanding under this facility as long-term debt in our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2014. Because of certain cross-default provisions included in our equipment financing facility in Brazil, we classified the principal amount outstanding under this facility as a current liability in our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2014. We do not have the ability to borrow additional amounts under these equipment financing facilities. Capital Leases and Tower Financing Obligations. 2013 Tower Transactions. In November 2013, Nextel Mexico sold 1,483 communication towers to American Tower for proceeds based on foreign currency exchange rates at the time of $374.3 million, subject to purchase price adjustments. During the adjustment period, Nextel Mexico accounted for this transaction under the deposit method and recorded the proceeds as a deposit liability. During the third quarter of 2014, the price adjustments were finalized, and we began accounting for the transaction as a sale-leaseback. As result, we recognized $75.4 million of the gain on the sale of the towers as a component of operating income in the third quarter of 2014 and deferred the remaining $179.6 million of the gain, which we will recognize into income over the term of the leaseback of the towers. Nextel Mexico also recognized a capital lease liability of $112.4 million related to the leaseback of a portion of each of these towers. In December 2013, Nextel Brazil sold 1,940 communication towers to American Tower for proceeds based on foreign currency exchange rates at the time of $348.0 million, subject to purchase price adjustments. Nextel Brazil also sold 103 towers for proceeds of $18.6 million in June 2014, subject to purchase price adjustments. In October 2014, upon the finalization of the price adjustments, Nextel Brazil completed the sale of all of these towers and began accounting for this transaction as a sale-leaseback. As a result, Nextel Brazil recognized an immaterial loss on the sale of the towers as a component of operating income in the fourth quarter of 2014 and deferred a gain of $155.5 million, which we will recognize into income over the term of the leaseback of the towers. Nextel Brazil also recognized a capital lease liability of $186.5 million related to the leaseback of a portion of each of these towers. Site-Related Capital Lease Obligations. We have entered into various agreements under which we are entitled to lease space on towers or other structures owned by third parties and to install our transmitter and receiver equipment in that space. Tower Financing Obligations. From 2002 to 2008, we sold and subsequently leased back space on certain transmitter and receiver sites in Brazil and Mexico. Due to our continuing involvement with these properties, we account for these transactions as financing arrangements. As a result, we did not recognize any gains from the sales of these towers under these arrangements, and we maintain the tower assets on our consolidated balance sheets. In addition, we recognized the proceeds received as financing obligations. We recognize ground rent payments as operating expenses in cost of service and tower base rent payments as interest expense and a reduction in the financing obligation using the effective interest method. In addition, we recognize co-location rent payments made by the third party lessees to the owner of the site as other operating revenues because of our continuing involvement with the tower assets. During the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, we recognized $38.5 million, $39.4 million and $56.8 million , respectively, in other operating revenues related to these co-location lease arrangements. Corporate Aircraft Lease. In 2009, we entered into an agreement to lease a corporate aircraft, which we accounted for as a capital lease. In June 2014, we entered into an agreement to sell this corporate aircraft for $32.5 million. In addition, in conjunction with the sale, we exercised our pre-existing option to purchase this aircraft from the lessor and immediately terminated the lease. In connection with the sale of the corporate aircraft and the termination of the associated lease, we recognized a $6.4 million asset impairment charge in the second quarter of 2014. Debt Maturities. Because we were unable to meet the financial covenants in our bank loans in Brazil as of the compliance date on December 31, 2014 and because of the associated cross-default provisions included in Nextel Brazil's equipment financing facility, we classified the principal amounts outstanding under these facilities as due in 2015 for purposes of the table below. For the years subsequent to December 31, 2014, scheduled annual maturities of all debt outstanding, excluding the obligations evidenced by the NII Capital Corp. and NIIT senior notes, which are included in liabilities subject to compromise on our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2014, are as follows (in thousands):
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