Following a creditors meeting of Q-Cells International Finance B.V, held yesterday, February 27, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, it was agreed that the maturity date on the companys convertible bond (ISIN DE000A0LMY64) may be delayed until April 30, 2012.
At the end of January, Q-Cells announced that it would try to reach individual agreements with its bonds creditor, after the Frankfurt Regional Court ruled that the new bond law from 2009 does not apply to its convertible bond due at the end of February 2012, meaning that the company could not defer its maturation in 2012.
Had the company not been allowed to defer payments, it would have had to pay the remaining funds today, thus likely pushing the company to file for insolvency.
In a statement released, Q-Cells wrote, "The convertible bond, which has an original face value of 492.5 million, bears interest at the rate of 1.375 percent per annum, and would have matured on February 28, 2012. The resolved moratorium also affects the claims under the guarantee assumed by Q-Cells SE for the Convertible Bond. Approximately 83 percent of the still outstanding nominal amount was represented at the meeting and the creditors approved the agenda item with a majority of some 80 percent."
Financial restructuring
Also back in January, Q-Cells said that in addition to delaying its bond repayments, it was planning to restructure its convertible bonds due in 2014 and 2015 via a debt-to-equity swap. The company reconfirmed its aims in its latest statement, and said that it hopes to implement the plans in the second half of this year.
It explained, "After [the] Creditors' Meeting, further procedural steps will follow, so that the financial restructuring can be implemented with legal certainty, with majorities of the creditors and shareholders of Q-Cells SE."
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