Astra International wants creditor's vote

Astra International wants creditor's vote

HONG KONG (Dow Jones): PT Astra International has targeted April 21 for the day the it hopes two-thirds of its creditors will accept a plan for restructuring the automotive company's huge foreign debts.

Astra's chief executive officer, Rini Soewandi, told Dow Jones Newswires Sunday that her company hopes to hold a meeting that day for creditors to vote on the company's plan in line with provisions of Indonesia's new bankruptcy codes. At least half the company's creditors must attend such a meeting, and the plan must be supported by creditors representing two-thirds of the total debt of about US$2 billion in order for the plan to be accepted.

Speaking by telephone from Singapore, Soewandi expressed confidence that Astra's proposal would win two-thirds acceptance and that legal paperwork will be completed in May.

Until a meeting with creditors Friday in Singapore, Astra has been seeking to come up with a plan acceptable to all creditors. But at the meeting, the company informed creditors it is abandoning that approach and asking them to act in line with bankruptcy code provisions seeking a two-thirds approval.

"It's impossible to get 100% approval from all your creditors," said Ms. Soewandi. "You have to go for a majority."