By Ahmed Hagagy / Reuters
KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Finance & Investment Co. has completed a restructuring to partially deal with the 158 million dinar ($567.22 million) debt it had built up by the end of last year, its chief executive said in an interview.
The company suffered net losses of more than 75 percent of its capital as a result of the global financial crisis, leading to a halt on trading of its shares.
Chief Executive Abdulmoghni Al-Abdulmoghni said that creditor banks and bondholders had participated in a 50 million dinar share issue. The take-up was 100 percent, he said.
The company’s existing shareholders had also taken up 15 million dinar’s worth of shares, he said in remarks for release on Thursday. The 65 million dinars will help the company fulfill its immediate debt obligations.
“Although the company lost its capital, it didn’t ever fall behind on paying or servicing debt…this had a significant impact on persuading creditors to enter into the restructuring,” he said.
The company started talks with creditors in mid-2010. They included a total of 23 local and foreign banks and bondholders.
