Punch noteholder committee favours covenant waive

Punch had earlier asked to meet its noteholders on 29 April to vote on requests to waive its covenant.

'Acceptable'​

In a statement issued this morning, the ABI Senior Noteholder Committee, which has blocking stakes in a number of classes of Punch A and Punch B notes, said: “The waivers have been reviewed by the Committee. The members of the Committee find the waivers acceptable, they intend to vote in favour of the extraordinary resolutions in respect of their holdings and they will be inviting other ABI members to consider a similar course of action.”

Punch had said the waivers are necessary ”to avoid the risk of a near-term default in both securitisations, which in the case of the Punch A securitisation is anticipated to be as early as 15 May 2014”.

“The requests include temporary waivers of the Debt Service Cover Ratio covenant and certain other provisions of the securitisation documents and, if granted, will expire at the latest on 29 August 2014. It is a condition of the waivers that a restructuring is launched by 30 June 2014.”

Punch added: “The covenant waiver requests require the support of all classes of noteholders and other securitisation creditors. There can be no assurance that the necessary noteholders and other securitisation creditors will support the covenant waiver requests, or that agreement will be reached on the terms of a consensual restructuring.”