Lenders agree to restructure suzlon Energy's Rs 9,500-crore debt

suzlon-EnergyStruggling wind energy turbine manufacturer Suzlon Energy on Thursday announced that its lenders approved its proposal to restructure its net debt.

A consortium of 19 lenders, led by State Bank of India (SBI), agreed to restructure Rs 9,500 crore of Suzlon Energy's Rs 13,000-crore net debt.

The corporate debt restructuring (CDR) process was triggered after the wind turbine maker defaulted on its foreign currency convertible bonds worth Rs 1,189 crore ($221 million) in October last year.

The lenders also provided the company with a two-year interest holiday, six-month moratorium on working capital interests, plus a ten-year door-to-door back-ended repayment plan, which means that the total loan exposure has now been spread over a period of next ten years.

The CDR approved by the lenders on Thursday is effective as on October 2012, when the Tulsi Tanti-founded company had defaulted on its foreign currency convertible bonds.

Under the terms of the agreement, interest worth Rs 1,500 crore will get converted into equity/equity-linked instrument over the next two years. The promoters of the company will have to collect in Rs 250 crore as equity in a fixed time frame. The company has a market capitalization of around Rs 3,208 crore.

Suzlon shares slipped 3 per cent to close at Rs 18 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Thursday.