Thursday, Jun 21, 2012
DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Global Investment House, the Kuwaiti company undergoing its second debt restructuring in three years, said it negotiated a term sheet for the deal with a creditors' committee after securing debt payment delays earlier this month.
The term sheet, which sets out Global's restructuring proposals in detail, has been circulated to bank lenders and is being distributed to bondholders, the company said in a statement posted Thursday on the Dubai bourse website. Global, which is restructuring about $1.7 billion of debt, hammered out the terms with a coordinating committee of the company's largest bank creditors.
The term sheet follows an agreement this month with banks and bondholders to give Global waivers on debt payments until as late as December. The deferrals bought Global time to discuss the new terms, which people familiar with the matter told Zawya Dow Jones earlier this year could involve creditors taking an equity stake in Global's assets or in the company itself.
Global was on the of the first firms in the Arab Gulf to restructure debt after the financial crisis, hit by a mix of long-term assets and short-term debt. It completed its first restructuring in 2009, but an overly ambitious debt repayment schedule forced Global to seek new terms.
The company's shares are listed in Kuwait, Dubai, Bahrain and London. Kuwaiti authorities suspended trading last year after accumulated losses breached a regulatory threshold of 75% of capital.
-By Asa Fitch, Dow Jones Newswires, +971 4 446-1685, asa.fitch@dowjones.com; Twitter: @ZDJnews
Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
21-06-12 0716GMT
