By Patricia Kuo March 10 (Bloomberg) — Oaktree Capital Management LLC , a Los Angeles-based investment fund, is poised to take control of alumina products-maker Almatis under the terms of the company’s $1 billion debt restructuring. Oaktree will take 86.5 percent of Almatis’s equity under the plan, which has been approved by two thirds of the Frankfurt-based company’s senior lenders, according to a presentation seen by Bloomberg News. In exchange, senior lenders will write down Almatis’s loans to between 45 cents and 86.5 cents on the dollar in a so-called debt-for-equity swap. Almatis said in a statement today it’s “pleased that a consensus has been reached by a majority of its senior lenders and is presently considering its response to this development.” Banks including UBS AG and Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corp. helped finance Almatis’s buyout in 2007 with $970 million of loans, including $235 million in junior debt. The company breached terms of the loans in the first half of last year as the global economic slowdown hurt demand for its products. Dubai International Capital LLC, the state-owned investment company that bought the alumina maker for an undisclosed amount in 2007, won’t recover its investment in Almatis unless it’s sold, according to the presentation, which was sent to senior lenders by their adviser, N.M. Rothschild & Sons Ltd., today. Junior lenders may recoup some of their money if the company is later sold for $325 million or more, according to the presentation. The proposal will allow Almatis to cut its debt to about $420 million and to seek protection from creditors under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to the presentation. Fiona Mulcahy , a London-based spokeswoman for Dubai International, declined to comment. An official at Oaktree Capital, which was founded in 1995 and has about $73 billion under management, also declined to comment. To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Kuo in London at pkuo2@bloomberg.net
Originally posted here:
Oaktree Set to Take Control of Almatis Under $1 Billion Debt Restructuring
