TPI: further reduction in outstanding debt

Thai Petrochemical Industry Plc (TPI) reported a 65 per cent decline in its outstanding debts to 37.89 billion baht or around US$940m as of the end of March, the Bangkok Post reports. The petrochemical company had debt of US$2.7 billion when it entered court-supervised rehabilitation in 2000 as the country’s largest debt-restructuring case.

The Central Bankruptcy Court will rule on April 26 whether the petrochemical and cement giant should be removed from the restructuring process as requested by its plan administrator.

On Sept 22, 2005, the plan administrator arranged the second round of sale of 249,007,294 shares of TPI Polene, one of its subsidiaries, as required under the plan. Two bidders participated but the higher offering price of 17 baht per share would not make it possible for the sale to generate the required US$250m as stipulated under the plan.

It turned out the creditors had decided to buy up all of the shares at 41.18 baht each, enabling TPI to raise US$250m to repay the creditors at last, and all accrued interest was also forgiven. Then on Dec 29 last year, the planner made the second repayment out of the proceeds from the 57-billion-baht issuance of new shares, resulting in a sharp decrease of the company’s outstanding debts to 37.89 billion baht as of the end of March.