| Headline: Samart still in orbit Source: Euromoney Date: February 2001 Author: Gill Baker Satellite communication holding company Samart Corporation is proud that it managed to keep all of the interest payments current on its Bt7.2 billion ($161 million) of debt. The company signed a restructuring programme with its creditors a year ago and agreed a rescheduling of tenor without lenders having to take a haircut. “Our lenders trust our management because we kept all our interest payments current,” says a company executive. Samart reached agreement with 16 lenders and a group of bondholders, of which half a dozen were foreign institutions accounting for around half of the total loans, with Crédit Lyonnais the largest creditor. The company did not encounter much difference in negotiation between foreign and Thai creditors. “Negotiations were just like a talk with friends, not with enemies,” the executive says. And the advice for other debt-laden companies? “Talk directly and frankly with your lenders,” the executive says. “If you have a problem, declare it and try to solve it together because it is for your mutual benefit. If the borrower can meet all the obligations and operate successfully it will get support from its lenders.” |