Intrawest repays debt, takes out new loan

Resort operator and Olympic host Intrawest has completely repaid its outstanding debt to prior lenders and taken out a new loan, the company recently announced.

The new loan is scheduled to mature in 2014, though the terms were not disclosed. Previous reports pegged the new loan at approximately $1.2 billion.

The Vancouver-based company’s assets were taken off the auction block in early March after its owner, Fortress Investment Group, reached a deal with creditors to restructure its debt. Fortress took on massive amounts of debt back in 2006 to leverage its $2.8-billion buyout of Intrawest.

The Whistler-Blackcomb ski hill operator first grabbed headlines earlier this year after a newspaper published that Intrawest assets would go on sale starting Feb. 19, right in the middle of the Olympic Games. The company had missed debt payments that were due back in December.

Intrawest, which also owns Mont Tremblant in Quebec and Blue Mountain in Ontario, has undergone a flurry of asset sales in recent months to raise funds, including a Florida golf resort, smaller ski resorts in California and B.C. and plans to sell a resort in Colorado.