Marco Polo seeks noteholders' consent to defer notes' redemption until 2019

MARCO Polo Marine has launched a consent solicitation exercise for its S$50 million notes due next month to seek noteholders' approval to defer the redemption of its debt papers by three years to October 2019.

The marine logistic group is also seeking to include part of its land in Batam where its shipyard is located as security and for additional interest of 1.5 per cent to be paid to noteholders in two instalments - 0.5 per cent in advance of the original maturity date of Oct 18 this year and the remaining one per cent per year payable in arrears in October 2017.

The issuer is also proposing to obtain a waiver for any non-compliance or potential non-compliance with various provisions of the trust deed and obtain approval to amend the trust deed.

The firm will hold the meeting for the extraordinary resolution on Oct 14.

The group suffered a net loss of S$7.5 million for the nine months ended June 2016 and in underlining the risk factors, said it expects to record net losses for the fiscal year ending September 2016, largely due to lower utilisation rates of its vessels and lower charter rates and lower revenue from the shipbuilding business.

It also warned that it expects to be highly leveraged for the next several years and may not be able to generate sufficient cash flows to meet debt service obligations.