Hynix Semiconductor Inc creditor banks met yesterday in an attempt to break the impasse in a planned US$6 billion bailout of the third-largest maker of computer memory chips, Korea Exchange Bank said.
Hynix's largest creditor and 17 others met to discuss new terms KEB proposed Monday, said Chung Hyung-ryang, the head of the bank's credit division. Those included allowing banks blocking the bailout to cease being creditors by swapping debt for equity, removing an obstacle to the plan.
"The banks are trying to narrow differences" ahead of a general meeting of 104 creditor institutions tentatively scheduled for today, Chung said. He said that meeting may be delayed because of disagreements among creditors.
Creditors are being asked to lend more to Hynix, struggling with 8.6 trillion won (US$6.6 billion) of debt and losing money making chips that sell for less than they cost to make, or to write off 70 percent of their loans and swap debt into shares at three times their price. The bank needs the agreement of creditors holding 75 percent of Hynix debt to force through its proposal and wants lenders blocking the plan to agree or pull out. Hynix is asking creditors for 1 trillion won of new loans and to convert 4 trillion won of debt into equity.
Some banks claim the write-off and debt-for-equity swap is too harsh. Kookmin Bank is protesting that the write-offs should depend on the quality of the debt creditors hold.
"We can't walk away from good collateral," said Lee Deuk-young, a Kookmin credit officer. "The pricing of the debt has to differ from bank to bank, depending on the type of debt they hold." More than a third of Kookmin's 409.7 billion won of Hynix debt is backed by collateral. Kookmin has the added task of unifying its stance with H&CB as the two will officially merge Nov. 1, creating Korea's largest commercial lender.
H&CB, which said it is "positively reviewing" the opt-out plan, has 172 billion won of Hynix debt, mostly in the form of credit loans.
Creditors planning to support Hynix, such as Hanvit Bank and Chohung Bank, are taking a hard line against the lenders blocking the bailout.
"If they don't want to participate, they have to write off a more significant portion of their loans," said Hong Chil-sun, chief credit officer at Chohung, which holds 732.8 billion won, or 8.5 percent, of Hynix debt.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS