Seat Pagine Gialle to Propose Billion-Euro Debt Write-Off Deal
Jun 28, 2013 9:45 PM GMT+0800
By Julie Miecamp
Seat Pagine Gialle SpA (PG), Italy’s largest directory publisher, will seek to write off 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of debt as part of a restructuring deal.
The request will be part of proposals to be filed with a Turin court, according to a statement on the Italian stock exchange yesterday. The plan will need to be approved by the court, creditors and shareholders.
The directories company must file the plan with the court by July 1, it said last month. It sought creditor protection earlier this year and stopped making payments on its loans and bonds, which total about 1.5 billion euros.
“Regarding the debt restructuring, there’s no big surprise, but from a process point of view it is disappointing for bondholders not to have more details,” said Jean-Philippe Maltais, senior credit analyst at Lucror Analytics Pte Ltd.
The company yesterday reported a 1 billion-euro loss for 2012 and a plan to sell its investments in Telegate AG (TGT), TDL Infomedia Ltd. (IFM) and CIPI SpA, according to the statement. It has received an expression of interest for the Telegate stake from a potential buyer.
The proposed restructuring is the company’s second in a year. Seat swapped 1.3 billion euros of junior-ranking bonds into shares and refinanced 686 million euros of loans in a deal that completed in September.