Forthnet to start talks with lenders
Forthnet’s corporate bond issue failed after its main stakeholders chose to sit it out, and the listed telecommunication company’s board decided on Wednesday via conference call to begin talks with its creditor banks.
The board’s aims are to secure a loan agreement that would provide it with some much-needed cash, to examine the possibility of a haircut of the enterprises’s existing debts and to get a sense of the banks’ intentions after the company comes under their control.
Forthnet, the country’s biggest alternative telecom provider to giant OTE and owner of Greece’s biggest pay TV platform (Nova), is constantly losing customers to its rivals (OTE, Vodafone and Wind), which enjoy healthy cash reserves.
Forthnet aims to discuss a debt haircut with the banks and if this is not deemed possible it will discuss a reduction of its obligations to its suppliers, following the model applied in the case of the Marinopoulos supermarket chain.
On the future plans of banks for Forthnet, they are understood to be studying various scenarios regarding the utilization of the company and, according to sources, the next step will be the appointment of a person of their choice in the company as chief reconstruction officer.
