Creditors to oppose BTS plan
Three secured creditors of the Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) will today try to block the company's rehabilitation plan at the Bankruptcy Court, arguing that as secured creditors they would stand to receive less
than their share of the debt payment than what they should get compared with other creditors.
According to a source, the creditors, whose names have been withheld, will object to the rehabilitation plan at Bankruptcy Court, saying the BTS plan was presented with ambiguous figures. The rehabilitation plan would present a Bt19.67-billion liquidation value without any clarification in spite of requests made by creditors. "The summation of this net liquidation value is Bt34.077 billion but they said that creditors would receive only Bt19.6 billion by discounting again at 9.5 per cent per year for six years," the source said, adding the net liquidation value should not be further discounted after the haircut. Secured creditors appointed two financial appraiser firms - Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Baker Tilly Thailand - to conduct their study and they reported a liquidation value of Bt44.52 billion and Bt52.912 billion, respectively. The Skytrain operator has debts of Bt59 billion under the restructuring plan. The current planner has divided 14 BTS creditors into two groups. The first group includes eight creditors with collateral and the rest are creditors without collateral. The creditors who are scheduled to object to the rehabilitation plan today were among the secured creditors of BTS. The source refused to reveal their names. BTS CEO Keeree Kanjanapas said earlier that the plan was subject to the court's ruling following creditors' approval. Meanwhile, the Central Bankruptcy Court ruled to exit Everland from its rehabilitation process after the company completed settling its debts as required by the plan. Following the court ruling, the company will hold a shareholders' meeting to appoint a new board of directors to work out the company's business direction, Everland director for the financial department, Wilairat Kritniratsai, said yesterday. The appointments will be completed over the next two or three months, she said. The company's revenues in 2006 will not be lower than Bt400 million, close to the figure in 2005. My Home Prachacheun, My Home Theparak, and Country Complex Bangna were the major contributors to the company in 2006. The launch of My Home Suwintawong will be postponed to this year, she said. Regarding the sources of funding to expand the company's business, Wilairat said that this would depend on the company's new board of directors. However, re-capitalisation is an interesting alternative. The property developer now has debts amounting to Bt730 million, of which Bt580 million is owed to Krung Thai Bank. Siam City Bank has already approved to extend a Bt60-million loan to Everland to finance its business, she said. The company in the future will reduce its debts to equity ratio not exceeding 1.5 times from 2 times at present.
Siriporn Chanjindamanee The Nation
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