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Swissco to miss bond coupon payment, fails to present restructuring plan

Swissco to miss bond coupon payment, fails to present restructuring plan
Another Singapore-listed offshore firm – Swissco – has run into trouble with its bondholders as it seeks to restructure.

Swissco held an informal meeting of bondholders on Monday saying that it would not be able to make a SGD2.85m ($2.06m) coupon payment due on Friday, but also failed to present concrete restructuring plans, according to the Straits Times.

The SGD100m notes mature in 2018 and the company said most of the money was used to pay down debt on vessels.

Bondholders were reportedly presented with a grim scenario of a company that has $147.5m in debt maturing between now and 2020, has just $1.2m in cash, and a monthly cash burn of $1.5m.

Of its fleet of seven drilling rigs four were idle, while three rigs it owns 50 -50 with Ezion were onhire but the charterer was failing to make payments.

The company was unable to present a concrete plan for restructuring and management blamed the “Swiber effect”.

Following Swiber’s shock move to place itself into liquidation, which later turned into judicial management, Swissco’s management said a deal to sell certain vessels fell through as the buyer was unable to get financing and fund ijection from a strategic investor also failed.

It remains unclear as to what the next step will be and Swissco’s stock, which was suspended prior to the meeting on Monday, remains suspended today.