Abengoa bondholders Centerbridge, BlackRock, Invesco, Värde, Sophic, DE Shaw, TCI poised to control equity; Sabadell sells loan
Abengoa bondholders, including Centerbridge, BlackRock, Invesco, Värde, Sophic, DE Shaw and other creditors willing to extend funding to the troubled Spanish clean tech group including The Children’s Investment (TCI) are poised to take control of the company, Expansion reported citing unidentified sources. Bondholders, as advised by Houlihan Lokey, have largely driven recent negotiations with the company with a view to avoid a court-supervised bankruptcy leading to a liquidation, Expansion said.
A change in control of Abengoa will result upon the implementation of a recently announced deal. Abengoa announced on Thursday (10 March) the outline of a term sheet to restructure its debts agreed with its main creditors. The deal, valued at almost EUR 10bn according to the Spanish-language paper, combines new liquidity lines, guarantees, debt capitalisation and maturity extensions.
The preliminary agreement as announced offered no details about the treatment of Abengoa’s debt with suppliers, Expansion noted. The Spanish press has previously reported on the formation of a group of suppliers negotiating with the company and a framework for negotiations based on the modification of payment terms and debt maturity extensions.
Financial creditors supportive of the agreement of the deal as announced yesterday represent c. 40% of the debt to be restructured under the plan and thereby fall far short of the 75% necessary to secure a court approval of a deal under its pre-concurso regime, a separate report in El Confidencial noted.
Both El Confidencial and Expansion reported on the sale by Abengoa lender Sabadell to an opportunistic investor of its EUR 75m piece of a EUR 1.4bn syndicated loan at a 85% discount of its nominal value.
The El Confidencial report went on to say that Sabadell's transfer of a portion of its outstanding debt with Abengoa to the unidentified hedge fund signals its exit from the so-called G-7 group of the company's relationship lenders: a group that is thought to still include Santander, Caixabank, Bankia, Banco Popular, Crédit Agricole and HSBC.
According to the El Confidencial report, Sabadell's other outstanding loans to Abengoa include EUR 236m in working capital lines and EUR 77m in project finance facilities.
As previously reported by this news service, on Thursday (10 March) Abengoa reached an agreement in principle regarding the terms of a deal to restructure its debt and recapitalise the group. In a statement filed with the Spanish securities regulator, the company said it believes that the term sheet contains the essential elements to achieve a future restructuring agreement, which shall be subject to the percentage of accessions required by law.