A court found Ricardo Salinas Pliego's TV Azteca insolvent, holding just 7.07% of assets against its debts as US bondholders chase a $400 million default.

This article by Dora Villanueva originally appeared in the July 9, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

The number of TV Azteca’s creditors could preliminarily reach 600, according to the public version of the July 6 ruling in which the First District Court for commercial insolvency matters in Mexico City declared admissible the commercial insolvency proceeding requested by the Grupo Salinas company. Of that number of creditors, 228 had invoices that were at least 30 days overdue at the moment the company formalized its request to enter the process.

In the same document, a public version of the ruling that does not reveal the amount the broadcaster owes, it is stated that 64.73 percent of all the debt the company had when it filed the commercial insolvency request was already more than 30 days in arrears.

At the same time, the proportion of assets to meet the overdue obligations was only 7.07 percent, according to the document that determines that the Grupo Salinas broadcaster indeed does not have the means to pay its debts, including the financing it received in 2017 and that keeps it in a lawsuit in the United States.

In the first week of March, and after losing early in the year the tax lawsuits it had with the Tax Administration Service, TV Azteca filed the commercial insolvency request –a legal procedure available to companies with financial difficulties and a generalized failure to make payments– with the aim of reorganizing the company.

The broadcaster has creditors in the United States who are demanding payment of financing obtained in 2017 through the issuance of bonds worth 400 million dollars. Since TV Azteca stopped paying them in 2020, citing difficulties from the coronavirus pandemic, it now faces a lawsuit led by The Bank of New York Mellon.

As part of that proceeding in the United States, the creditors alleged that the broadcaster moved its most valuable assets, including the television concession, to new companies that are not covered by the bond issue’s collateral, in addition to having obtained a credit of 290 million dollars with “an entity in Saint Lucia linked to criminal activities” –as the bondholders describe it– called AlterBank.

Even with the formal start of the commercial insolvency proceeding in Mexico, which initially grants a period of 185 calendar days to reach a settlement with the creditors, the process in the United States continues.

A Responsible Procedure

Grupo Salinas asked that this outlet take it into account to continue reporting on the commercial insolvency of its subsidiary. It emphasized that “the proceeding is part of the responsible strategy of corporate, operational, and financial reorganization that TV Azteca announced back in February.”

It added that “this is a mechanism provided for by law to reorganize liabilities in an orderly manner, preserve the continuity of operations, and strengthen the company’s long-term financial position,” as La Jornada had already reported since it became known that TV Azteca was headed into commercial insolvency.

The post There Are 600 Creditors of TV Azteca; 228 Have Gone at Least a Month Without Being Paid appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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