La Seda’s Shareholders Reject Plan To Halt Insolvency
The shareholders of Spanish PET producer La Seda de Barcelona rejected a debt refinancing plan that would have allowed the company to withdraw from insolvency proceedings, its largest shareholder said.
The Catalonia-based company, which makes bottles in Europe, Turkey and North Africa, has been in talks with creditors for months since high material costs and excess supply of the PET plastic containers it makes put pressure on its business.
On Tuesday it said it had reached a preliminary deal to refinance 75% of €235 million ($306 million) of syndicated debt with creditors, largely thanks to a deal with its biggest creditor U.S. hedge fund Anchorage. But La Seda shareholder BA Pet with an 18% stake said in a statement on Wednesday that shareholders had rejected Anchorage's proposal to control the company by taking on 40% of financial debt at a 60% discount.
La Seda said in a stock market filing that a majority of shareholders rejected a plan to give Anchorage a stake in the company in exchange for debt. La Seda had €600 million of debt at the end of 2012, according to company filings, and has €462 million in syndicated loans from banks, according to Reuters loan market news and analysis service RLPC.
