BLT's future hangs by a thread after restructuring rejection

Voting results for Indonesia’s Penundaan Kewajiban Pembayaran Hutang (PKPU) on Friday showed its restructuring plans had failed to meet the required level of creditor approval. While BLT claimed “overwhelming support” from unsecured creditors, with a majority of 70% in number and 82% in value, for its secured creditors it obtained just a 67% majority by number and 57% by value.

“This majority from BLT's secured creditors was not sufficient to meet the requisite majority required to approve the restructuring plan,” the company said.

This leaves BLT’s future hanging by thread as it is allowed to call a second vote within eight days given that obtained over a 50% vote from both classes of secured and unsecured creditors. The supervisory judge in Jakarta has now called for a second meeting of creditors on 14 March.

The world’s third largest chemical tanker owner and Indonesia's biggest shipowner, BLT, unilaterally stopped paying its debts over a year ago. The dual Jakarta and Singapore-listed owner then started to undertake a restructuring process.

Even if Indonesian creditors approve the plan BLT will still have to seek approval from Singapore creditors under its Scheme of Arrangement lodged with the Singapore courts. Should Indonesian creditors fail to approve the plan on 14 March the company will move into liquidation.