Foreign creditors of Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) will today file a petition with the Central Bankruptcy Court requesting a revision of the debt-restructuring plan to give creditors the right to buy a 20-per-cent stake in the Skytrain operator.

A foreign creditor who asked not to be named said the existing plan, set by debtor BTS chairman Keeree Kanjanapas, was unfair to creditors as it would force them to take a haircut as large as Bt35 billion.

Aside from the right to buy a 20-per-cent stake, the foreign creditors will propose shortening the capital-increase schedule to four months and the appointment of a co-planner with the debtor.

The Central Bankruptcy Court will also today rule on the grouping of creditors. On Wednesday official receivers will set the date for a creditors' meeting to approve the plan.

According to the source, the debt-restructuring plan should allow creditors as well as existing shareholders to buy capital-increase shares. According to the existing plan, shareholders would be forced to take a loss from the capital reduction.

Keeree's plan is to restructure Bt67.77 billion of BTS' Bt77.73-

billion debts. According to the plan, BTS would have to reduce its capital by as much as 90 per cent. Then the company would increase capital by 13.8 billion shares with par value of Bt1 per share. However, the plan does not indicate clearly who would be the buyer of the capital-increase shares, and at what price.

"We would like to ask the

planner to conduct the capital increase more transparently. It should indicate clearly who will be the buyers and what the price of the capital-increase shares will be.

"Most importantly, the plan should allow existing shareholders to buy capital-increase shares. Creditors should also be given the right to buy capital-increase shares as they are forced to realise a loss from the expensive debt-to-equity swap," he said.

The source said a proper arrangement would be that after the capital reduction, existing shareholders should be allowed to buy a 20-per-cent stake in BTS, while creditors should be given the right to buy another 20 per cent of the company, including the debt-to-equity swap portion. The share price, which was set at no less than Bt1 per share, should be the same as that at which BTS would sell to new investors.

According to the existing plan, there will be a debt-to-equity swap at the price of Bt15.80 per share. Then there will be a capital reduction by 90 per cent, which will consequently reduce the par value from Bt10 to Bt1 per share. This will cause damage to creditors of Bt14.80 per share or around Bt10 billion in total.

The current planner has divided BTS' creditors into 14 groups from a total of 28 local and foreign creditors. The largest creditor is Deutsche Bank AG London with total loans of Bt24.48 billion, of which Bt16.17 billion is principal and Bt8.31 billion interest.

The debt payment has also been divided into three portions. First, creditors with collateral representing Bt11.8 billion of debts would be paid 63 per cent of principal, Bt7.46 billion of which would be paid in cash and the remainder by debt-to-equity swap. Second, creditors without collateral representing Bt52.9 billion of debts would be paid 47 per cent, Bt12.96 billion of which would be paid in cash and the remainder by debt-to-equity swap. Third, the subordinated creditors representing debts of Bt3.07 billion would be paid only 9 per cent.

"We also asked BTS to pay more to creditors with collateral as the collateral of 35 electric trains is worth only Bt7 billion, while the Skytrain concession value, worth as much as Bt20 billion, has not been used as collateral," he said.

According to the existing plan, the debt payments in cash will be made within 120 days after the capital reduction and capital increase. The capital increase is scheduled within 180 days and can be extended by another 180 days. This timeframe is too long, he said. Creditors want to shorten the capital-increase process to 120 days with cash payment within 30 days.

In addition, foreign creditors would like to revise the plan by appointing a co-planner and have proposed National Advisory Co Ltd as co-planner to oversee all financial management, income, expenses and investment plans along with the existing planner or the Keeree group.

The foreign creditors also want BTS to open bidding to seek a company to oversee the profits from the advertising on the Skytrain carriages and stations. Each year the income from this is as much as Bt4 billion for the remaining 23-year concession.

However, the existing plan indicates that there will only be Bt2 billion in annual income from advertising.

Another source from the creditors said that an initial survey of creditors indicated that creditors representing 40 per cent of debts disagreed with the existing plan and would vote against it on Wednesday while creditors that support the debt-restructuring plan of Keeree, representing more than 50 per cent of debts, would vote for the plan.

"However, we want to point out that there is unfairness in the debt-restructuring plan by BTS. We only hope that other creditors will agree with us."

Siriporn Chanjindamanee

The Nation