8 สิงหาคม 2546
Debt restructuring / Jasmine International.Court approves write-off. Losses to be cleared by end of this year
Komsan Tortermvasana and Reuters.
Jasmine International Plc. will be able to write off 70% of its 11.8 billion baht in debts under a restructuring plan approved yesterday by the Central Bankruptcy Court.
The plan would leave the telecommunications group with only 3.6 billion baht in debt, of which 1.9 billion is to be repaid over the next years.
The ruling sent Jasmine shares down 4.67% or 50 satang to close at 10.20 baht, as some investors had already taken profits. Jasmine shares have risen 420% since the start of the year - the best performance on the Stock Exchange of Thailand - on expectations that its debt problems would be resolved.
Jasmine was founded by Adisai Bodharamik, the incumbent commerce minister who at the height of the boom in the early 1990s was the only person in Thailand to own a corporate jet.
The company filed a petition late last year to restructure its debts under the supervision of the court.
The restructuring plan classifies creditors into three groups of secured creditors and five groups of unsecured creditors.
It also provides for a capital increase through the issue of 30 million new common shares, the proceeds of which will be used to buy back debt at a discount.
As well, 20 million new preferred shares will be issued to accommodate a voluntary debt-equity conversion and 18 million common shares for a mandatory debt-equity swap.
The rehabilitation plan administrator or the company may also issue to existing shareholders warrants up to a limit of 750,283,671 units. The proceeds of the warrant issue and warrant exercise will be used as working capital by the company.
A source in Chaengwatana Planner the plan administrator, said Jasmine would book a gain of at least five billion baht from the restructuring, which would enable it to wipe out all accumulated losses by the end of this year.
He said Jasmine would sell 18 million new shares to creditors at 25 baht each as part of the debt-to-equity swap, lifting its registered capital to 4.9 billion baht from 4.74 billion.
Jasmine operates a wide range of telecoms-related business, from a submarine cable network to satellite--based mobile phone service. It also has an interest in the provincial fixed-line operator TT&T Plc.
The company has 44 creditors, including Bangkok Bank and HSBC.
Jasmine also plans to sell its noncore assets, such as land and office buildings, worth 70 million baht to repay debts.
Jasmine holds a 100% stake in ACeS Regional Services, the sole national service provider for the Asia Cellular Satellite (ACeS) mobile phone service in Thailand, and holds approximately 12% in ACeS International, the operator of the ACeS project.
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