Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Getronics said the new deadline for bondholders to make a decision on reducing its debt mountain would be May 30, after the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled they should be given more time to consider the alternative debt-reduction proposal announced last week to sell or close down certain Getronics operations.
This plan is clearly the preferred route for bondholders since it emerged earlier this month that Getronics would face legal action from Dutch shareholder group VEB if it were to go ahead with its initial plan to cut debt by exchanging convertible bonds for shares, since this would reduce the amount of equity owned by ordinary shareholders from 43% to just 3.5%.
Last week, Getronics said it had received serious offers to acquire its Getronics Human Resources Solutions (GHRS) business, which generated revenue of 95m euros ($100.7m) and made earnings before interest, tax and amortization (EBITDA) of 35m euros ($37.1m) in 2002. This is expected to be complete in the coming months, and following further divestments of non-core assets, Getronics expects to put some 300m euros ($318m) raised toward repaying its debt, rather than simply raising capital through a debt-for-equity split.
The company said it would also attempt to either liquidate or restructure under-performing operations, starting with its Italian subsidiary, which appointed former Texas Instruments executive Roberto Schisano as chairman on March 20 to turn around the operation.
Source: Computerwire
