KUWAIT – Shareholders in Kuwait's Global Investment House approved Sunday a final plan to create new special purpose vehicles that will carry the company's debt as part of the $1.7 billion debt restructuring plan. Global, which is undergoing its second debt restructuring in three years, will create at least two SPVs, one to hold company assets along with a debt of $1.3 billion and one which will take part in a capital increase for the parent company and which will carry a debt equivalent of $430 million, Managing Director Maha Al-Ghunaim told a news conference. "One special purpose vehicle is going to hold the assets from our balance sheet which will be moved to that company," he said. "The other SPVs, one SPV or more that are going to be created, will participate in the capital increase of the company and it is going have a debt equivalent to $430 million," she added. According to the plan, Global will offer 122.2 million dinars ($433.64 million) of new shares to creditors, subject to creditor approval.
The shareholders meeting also agreed to write off losses worth 31.1 million dinars against Global's current share premium and a further 77.1 million dinars from its existing paid-up capital. Global, which counts the governments of Kuwait and Dubai as major shareholders, asked bank creditors in September to suspend payments on a 1.7 billion plan agreed in 2009. – Reuters
