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Bakrie Telecom granted debt restructuring recognition by US judge
The parties told the judge at the close of the hearing that they would negotiate a schedule for the case and report back to him.
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An office of telecommunication company PT Bakrie Telecom.
(tempo.co/Eko Siswono Toyudho)
A
judge at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has granted telecommunications company PT Bakrie Telecom’s (BTEL) request for recognition of its Indonesian debt restructuring (PKPU) as a foreign main proceeding, overruling a challenge from six holders of the company’s US$380 million notes.
Judge Sean Lane issued a bench ruling on April 19, determining that the company’s notes indenture, governed by New York law, constituted US property and met eligibility requirements for Chapter 15 and that the company’s foreign representative had been appointed appropriately in the course of its restructuring.
The parties told the judge at the close of the hearing that they would negotiate a schedule for the case and report back to him, according to an Acuris company Debtwire.
The noteholders won a $161.6 million judgment in the New York state court litigation filed in September 2014, claiming that BTEL misstated its financial position while offering bonds in 2010.
A month after the noteholders launched the New York lawsuit, a different creditor filed a petition in a Jakarta court to push the company into a PKPU. BTEL restructured $780 million in debt in that case, including the notes.
But the noteholders dispute the results of that restructuring, taking issue with a ruling that allowed BTEL vehicle Bakrie Telecom, not bond trustee Bank of New York Mellon, to vote on the plan.
Unable to vote on the plan and unhappy with their treatment, the noteholders pushed Judge Lane not to recognize the Indonesian restructuring as a foreign main proceeding, arguing that the case enacted a “complete disenfranchisement” of the holders.
Judge Lane said the court was not in the position to resolve disputes that occurred in the company’s Indonesian restructuring as it related to a motion for Chapter 15 recognition. (bbn)
