Loyz Energy has US$22.6m loans backed by vehicle of Ezra's CEO

LOYZ Energy said some US$22.6 million bank loans on its books are backed by corporate guarantees from an investment vehicle of Ezra Holdings' group chief executive and shareholder, Lionel Lee.

The investment vehicle, Jit Sun, also holds in excess of 151 million shares representing about 9.9 per cent interest in Loyz, the company said after trading closed on Wednesday.

The bank loans comprised current portion of US$2.1 million and non-current portion of US$20.5 million. They constituted 59 per cent of Loyz's unaudited net book value as at Dec 31, 2016.

Loyz said nothing has come to its attention that Jit Sun will not continue to provide the corporate guarantee for the bank loans.

Loyz said it has restructured the bank loans with the financial institutions to better match cash inflows with the principal and interest repayments.

Financial institutions have also extended assurances to Loyz that in the event that there are any breaches on the terms and conditions of the bank loans in relation to Jit Sun, they are prepared to consider waiving such breaches on a case-by-case basis.

Loyz also said it does not have any business and financial dealings with Ezra. As an independent exploration and production upstream energy company, Loyz also said it is in a different business sector from Ezra.