Anwar Sierad restructuring debt

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed poultry company PT Anwar Sierad announced on Thursday that it expected to complete the restructuring of its US$160 million debt within the next three months.

The company's finance director Awi Tantra said the company was currently working to obtain a "letters of support" from its five biggest creditors.

"The letters of support from the big creditors would then be distributed to all the remaining creditors in the hope of receiving at least two-thirds of the creditors' approval during a vote on our final debt restructuring proposal," he said.

The company's five biggest creditors representing 50 percent of its total debts are the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), PT Rabobank Duta Indonesia and Rabobank Asia of Singapore branch, the Deutsche Bank, AG of Germany and Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Awi said the debt restructuring proposal would be a combination of a debt-to-equity swap and debt rescheduling.

"We expect about 70 percent of the debts would be converted to the company's equity and the remaining would be rescheduled."

One of its creditors earlier filed a bankrupty petition against Anwar Sierad at the Jakarta Commercial Court. The case was postponed after the poultry company's major creditors approved a tentative debt restructuring proposal.

Anwar Sierad was given 270 days by the court to complete final debt restructuring with its creditors.

The court will declare the company bankrupt if it fails to reach a final debt restructuring agreement within the allocated timeframe.

Awi said he was optimistic Anwar Sierad would reach a final debt restructuring agreement with the creditors.

"The company has been operating normally throughout the crisis. And currently we are achieving a better performance because the country's economic and political conditions are stabilizing," he said.

Anwar Sierad -- 50.01 percent owned by PT Sietek Nusantara Finance and the rest by the public -- is involved in chicken hatching, producing chicken feed and trading in poultry farming equipment.

Awi said the price of day-old chickens (DOC) was recovering from as low as below Rp 1,000 per DOC last year to the current DOC figure of Rp 2,300. (udi)