Tegna falls ahead of Standard General deal termination deadline

Tegna (NYSE:TGNA) dropped 2.6% ahead of Standard General deadline for the parties to terminate the $24 a share acquisition of the TV broadcaster.

Standard General has said it expects to lose financing from its backers for its planned purchase of Tegna (TGNA) if it didn't get approval from regulators to go ahead with the deal. The walk deadline for the acquisition expires at 5pm on Monday.

"It's midnight for Cinderella," on May 22, Soo Kim, founding partner of Standard told reporters on a call earlier this month.

Kim explained on the call that financing for the planned Tegna (TGNA) takeover was arranged 15 months ago when the financing environment was very different, with interest rates much lower than they are currently. Kim said he didn't think it was possible he would now be able to get any financing for a Tegna deal now that was "reasonable."

Standard General has urged the FCC to hold and "up or down" vote on the Tegna (TGNA) acquisition before the Monday deadline.

The plea for FCC vote comes after FCC in late February said that Tegna's (TGNA) planned $24 a share sale to Standard General had to go to an administrative law judge. Tegna shares have plunged 28% since Feb. 24, when the FCC "effectively killed" the deal, analysts said.

Last month a U.S. appeals court denied an attempt to speed up the regulatory review of Standard General's $5.4 billion purchase of the TV broadcaster.