Marco Polo Marine requests haircut from bondholders to settle debt

Integrated shipping company Marco Polo Marine is seeking noteholders' approval to take a haircut and waive key obligations for a S$50 million series of 5.75 percent notes due 2016.

Integrated shipping company Marco Polo Marine is seeking noteholders' approval to take a haircut and waive key obligations for a S$50 million series of 5.75 percent notes due 2016.

Marco Polo is asking, among other things, that noteholders give it the right to redeem the bonds by January 2018 by paying S$35,868 in cash and the same amount in shares priced at 3.5 Singapore cents per share, representing a combined redemption amount of S$71,736.

The noteholders' meeting will take place on Nov 15 at Ocean Financial Centre.

Among the several risk factors the company outlined in a separate statement, Marco Polo said it suffered net losses of S$309.0 million for the nine months ended June 30, 2017, and expects to record net losses for the full year.

Losses mainly due to lower utilisation rates of the group's vessels and lower charter rates, decreased revenues from the shipbuilding business and various impairment charges.

"The issuer may be highly leveraged for the next several years and may not be able to generate sufficient cash flows to meet its debt service obligations," it said.

As of June 30, 2017, the company had a total debt was about S$260.8 million.

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