Brazilian flats producer Usiminas has obtained a waiver from Japanese creditors, mainly banks and bondholders, dispensing the company to carry out an exchange offer for its notes due in 2018, the steelmaker said late this week.
The waiver was seen as an important step for the steel producer to advance on its debt restructuring with creditors.
Usiminas was also granted the same waiver from the Brazilian banks earlier this year, as previously reported by SteelOrbis; however, it was conditioned on the approval of a definite waiver from the Japanese investors.
Usiminas said it will pay Brazilian and Japanese banks, as well as bondholders, on December 15, 2017, $90 million or 50 percent the balance of the notes outstanding principal, pro rata, as a “partial amortization” of the company’s debts, in addition to paying a waiver fee, usual in this type of transaction.
“With the achievement of these definitive waivers, Usiminas has concluded an important cycle of renegotiation of its debts, … to be fully focused on generating sustainable results for the company,” it said.
Brazilian banks and BNDES, the country’s development bank, account for about 70 percent of the company’s debt.
Usiminas said the definite waiver changes an important conditioning term that was part of the company’s debt restructuring, whose final terms were approved by creditors on September last year.
By granting Usiminas a definite waiver, Usiminas will fully settle its notes due on January 2018. The company said the change brought more advantages for the company, as the company was supposed to pay 50 percent of the January bonds and renegotiate the other 50 percent through an exchange offer.