Embattled MGM CEO Harry Sloan has been replaced by a triumvirate comprising the restructuring specialist Stephen Cooper, production chief Mary Parent and CFO Bedi Singh as the studio struggles to shake off heavy debt.

Sloan will continue as chairman and thus maintain ties with the studio after he came aboard in 2005. Cooper, Parent and Singh are named “members of the office of the CEO”.

It is understood that Cooper has also been appointed vice-chairman and will oversee the studio’s efforts to repair the financial cracks that have been the subject of ongoing speculation for years.

Cooper co-founded restructuring advisory firm Zolfo Cooper and oversaw Enron Corp’s bankruptcy as interim chief executive and oversaw Krispy Kreme Doughnuts’s restructuring as CEO. Parent arrived in March 2008 as chairwoman of MGM’s worldwide motion picture group.

MGM has been struggling to raise money to refinance $3.7bn in debt, the bulk of which emanates from the 2005 buy-out by an investor consortium comprising Providence Equity Partners, Sony and Comcast, among others.

Earlier this year the studio hired investment bank Moelis & Co to help refinance its debt.

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