Majority of EC World Reit’s lenders agree to extend repayment deadline to Apr 30
Janice Lim
THE majority of lenders of EC World Reit (Real Estate Investment Trust) have agreed to extend the Reit’s deadline for its outstanding repayments to Apr 30 this year, its manager announced in a bourse filing on Friday (Mar 17).
The filing stated that 86 per cent of onshore lenders and 89 per cent of offshore lenders have agreed to extend the mandatory repayment deadline to the end of April, subject to the finalisation of terms and conditions under the revised repayment plan.
The rest of the lenders are in the process of obtaining internal approvals in relation to the extension.
The Reit’s manager has also been advised by loan facility agents that the remaining lenders have no internal directive to call for an event of default pending their internal approval process.
It announced in October last year that it would be divesting its indirect interests in Bei Gang Logistics and Chongxian Port Logistics for a total of 2.03 billion yuan (S$395.5 million).
Part of the proceeds from the divestment will go towards repaying 25 per cent of the Reit’s outstanding onshore and offshore loans by Dec 31, as required by its lenders.
However, stringent Covid-19 controls, the Chinese National Day holiday and the Communist Party’s 20th Party Congress had caused delays in lenders’ internal approval processes for the transaction financing, and the company was not able to complete the processes in time.
The repayment deadline had already been extended to Feb 28 this year, but the Reit announced then that it was still unable to complete the divestment process and had to seek another extension.
Units of EC World Reit closed at S$0.31 on Friday, up 5.1 per cent or S$0.015.
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
