97% acceptance on the exchange offer – Moody’s views it as a selective default
Edcon announced last week the final results of the exchange offer on its 13.375% senior unsecured notes due 2019 (EUR425M). As a reminder, Edcon proposed the ditressed exchange of these notes into a combination of senior PIK notes.
Having reached an acceptance rate of over 90% (97.3% to be precise), this allows the company to implement a series of amendments, including the reduction of the principal by up to 72.5% for the few holders that did not participate in the exchange, the reduction of the coupon to 5% (becoming PIK) and the extension of the maturity date to 2022.
Overall, the exchange offer will lead to the issue of EUR200M senior 13.375% PIK notes due 2019 (option A notes), EUR241M 13.375% senior PIK notes due 2019 (option B notes) and EUR22M of new super senior 8% PIK notes. This will lead to a substantial reduction in both cash interest expenses and cash indebtedness for the company. Discussions continue with other noteholders for further optimization of the capital structure.
Moody’s released a statement confirming that it views this distressed exchange offer as an effective limited default on the senior unsecured notes. We expect S&P to take a similar course of action and consider the successful exchange offer as a selective default (SD) on the bonds and a default (D) for the issuer.