Scheme creditors give nod to Marco Polo's debt restructuring

MARCO Polo Marine has secured the requisite majority approval from its scheme creditors for its restructuring plan, which calls for debt forgiveness towards S$258 million of liabilities to make way for S$60 million new equity to be injected into the listed group.

Marco Polo Marine and its key subsidiary Marco Polo Shipyard Pte Ltd (MPSY) on Thursday convened two separate court meetings with their scheme creditors.

At the court meeting for the listed parent company, five of the seven scheme creditors representing S$187.4 million or 75.5 per cent of the admitted claims for voting, voted in support of the restructuring plan.

In a separate court meeting, all 40 of MPSY's creditors answering for S$4.68 million of the admitted claims for voting granted unanimous approval to its restructuring plan.

In both cases, Marco Polo and its shipyard subsidiary have meet the statutory requirement of securing at least 75 per cent in majority vote from their scheme creditors.

With its scheme creditors' support, Marco Polo has crossed another milestone for its debt restructuring exercise.

On Wednesday, the listed parent company also won a majority vote from its noteholders for the restructuring of its S$50 million Singapore dollar note issuance.

Marco Polo has another S$202 million of bank loans on its books.

The listed group had asked for 69 per cent, 71 per cent and 95 per cent debt forgiveness from its bank lenders, noteholders and for its contingent liabilities with the two schemes and the notes restructuring proposal.

It had also pledged to issue new shares at S$0.035 per share as part-settlement for these liabilities.

Trade debts will be termed out for another three more years.

The restructuring of its liabilities is a pre-condition for nine investors to inject S$60 million new equity into its offshore support vessel-focused business.

The group has to also seek its existing shareholders' approval for the required equity dilution and greenlight to proceed with the debt restructuring of its Batam-based subsidiary under Indonesia's Penundaan Kewajiban Pembayaran Utang (PKPU) regime.