Indian network services group GTL has dismissed as “mere speculation” reports that it has put forward a debt restructuring proposal to its lenders.
The comment was made in a letter from GTL’s company secretary Vidyadhar Apte to the National Stock…
Indian network services group GTL has dismissed as “mere speculation” reports that it has put forward a debt restructuring proposal to its lenders.
The comment was made in a letter from GTL’s company secretary Vidyadhar Apte to the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), which has been seen by TelecomFinance.
In the letter, dated today, Apte cites a report in the Business Standard newspaper on Saturday claiming that GTL’s lenders had approved a proposal to restructure its debt and that GTL was in dialogue with potential investors.
Apte said that whenever the company reaches an agreement with lenders and/or potential investors it would disseminate the news to the stock exchange.
“In the mean time kindly note that the reports in the sections of the media related thereto are mere speculation,” Apte said.
GTL Infrastructure, the tower unit of GTL, announced in July that it would be making a new debt restructuring plan. This followed reports that GTL Infrastructure and GTL were looking to restructure Rs170bn (US$3.6bn) in debt after they defaulted on repayments in July.
Saturday’s Business Standard report cited by Apte was not available on the newspaper’s website today. But a report from Friday last week noted that shares of GTL and GTL Infrastructure had gone up by almost 20% and 40% respectively during the day’s trading amid reports that lenders had approved a debt restructuring proposal for the two companies.
In a separate statement today, GTL Infrastructure said that it was not aware of any reason for the increase in the volume of the shares.
Citing sources, the Economic Times reported that GTL had an eight-year period to repay its debt, with a two-year moratorium period. The newspaper reported that GTL had 15 lenders, of which the lead lenders are Andhara bank, ICICI Bank and Standard Chartered.
