Supreme Court backs 'ANteve' in bankruptcy suit
JAKARTA (JP): The Supreme Court's civil review decision last week maintained its earlier decision and the decisions of the lower courts to reject the foreign creditors' bankruptcy claim against local private television station ANteve.
The defendant lawyer said on Tuesday that according to the Supreme Court's verdict made on May 26 the bankruptcy claim was rejected on the ground that ANteve did not have any due debts.
"The 1997 bond agreement between ANteve and its creditors stipulates that whenever Anteve defaults on either the sinking fund or the coupon interest payment of the bond, the parent company Bakrie Investindo, serving as the bond stand-by purchaser, would have to cover that," ANteve's lawyer Aji Wijaya told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Sinking fund is money which a bond issuer has to pay over a fixed period of time to assure bankers it is able to repay the bonds when they fall due.
Aji from the Fuady, Tommy, Aji Wijaya law firm said the plaintiff had had to file the bankruptcy claim against ANteve's parent company Bakrie Investindo instead of the TV station.
The bankruptcy petition against ANteve was jointly filed in January by Hong Kong-based IBJ Asia Ltd., Korea Commercial Finance Ltd. and Seoul-based Hanareum Banking Corp. following ANteve's default on the payment of a $3.675 million sinking fund due on June 11, 1998.
The total bond amounts to US$70 million.
Aji said his client has been in a good faith to settle its debts with the three bondholders through a series of debt negotiations, even when the case was being heard by the commercial court.
"Today (Tuesday) we are going to submit our restructuring proposal to the bondholders as a follow-up of last Friday's talk," Aji said.
The plaintiff's lawyer Joni Aries Bangun of Hanafi & Ponggawa law firm said he was yet to hear the civil review decision.
"I haven't heard about the decision. I will make a comment only when I am officially informed," he said.
In their review decision on ANteve last week, a Supreme Justice team comprising Chief Justice Sarwata and his two deputies Ketut Suraputra and Zakir upheld the Supreme Court's previous decision, It also upheld the decisions of the Jakarta High Court and the Jakarta Commercial Court.
A source close to the case said the Supreme Justice team may have debated the verdict and that the decision could have been decided otherwise.
He said the rationale for deciding otherwise was that the stand-by purchaser agreement should only complement ANteve's promise to pay due debts (sinking fund and coupon interest). In effect, the debt is still owed by ANteve despite the parent company guarantee, the source said.
"So, when the debt is defaulted, creditors should go to ANteve, and only to the parent company as guarantor if ANteve is not able to pay the debt in full or partially," he said.
Of ANteve's total US$70 million in bonds, KEB (Asia) Finance Ltd. holds $20 million, IBJ Asia Ltd., Korean Commercial Finance Ltd. and Shinhan Investment Bank each hold $15 million. J.P. Morgan Securities Asia Ltd. holds another $5 million.
The 1998 bankruptcy law requires a plaintiff in filing a bankruptcy petition to prove that the defendant has at least two creditors and one debt due. (udi)