A Bermuda court has granted an order appointing a court officer to Singapore trader and bulker owner Noble Group in order to finalise its $3.5bn debt restructuring.
The company had warned last week that this was its last roll of the dice to push through the formation of a new operation, New Noble, and secure its future.
Completion of the restructuring scheme, which is being carried out in the UK and Bermuda, is expected on Wednesday.
Day-to-day operations of the group are unaffected and business will continue as usual, it said.
The move was prompted by Singapore blocking the transfer of its listing status to New Noble.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX Regco) said there were “significant uncertainties” about the financial position of New Noble.
The company has been seeking to reorganise debt of $3.5bn, but other claims could push this to $4.2bn.
Noble's bond and bank debt has fallen into default and it has been selling some of its dry cargo fleet in the past year.
New bonds coming
All scheme creditors will be entitled to a proportion of $290m of bonds to be issued by an intermediate holding company of a successor entity called New Noble, 70%-controlled by creditors.
These will be subordinated to $1.2795bn of new "priority" bonds which will be issued by New Noble itself.
Crucially, however, the priority debt will only be issued to scheme creditors who elect to “risk participate” by agreeing to guarantee $700m of new trade finance and hedging facilities, the ruling said.
Investment bank Moelis has calculated that a non-participating creditor can expect to receive between 24.7% and 33.8% of its accepted claim, whereas a creditor who guarantees new finance will get between 47.4% and 58.4% for a risk participation of between 14.7% and 18.2%.
