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| TID’s debts to over 100 banks |
The Central Bank of Kuwait has refused to endorse a $3.5 billion restructuring of The Investment Dar (TID), the owner of UK car maker Aston Martin. Sources close to the negotiations say creditors were informed of the decision, which was also communicated through the Kuwaiti press, in mid-November.
"The central bank said it wouldn’t fly," says Ali Khalil, chief operating officer of Kuwaiti investment firm Markaz, which is representing TID’s non-bank creditors – the biggest group, according to Khalil.
Euromoney understands that TID was due to contest the decision in early December in a special circuit court created in the Court of Appeal under Kuwait’s March 2009 Financial Stability Law. TID applied in March to use part of the Financial Stability Law to force a restructuring past dissident creditors, something the circuit court can allow on the advice of the central bank. The central bank had until mid-November to assess TID’s accounts and decide if its plans were viable.
"I would be very surprised if the court said the central bank was wrong," says Abdul Aziz Al Yaqout, Middle East managing partner at UK law firm DLA Piper.
