The Investment Dar - Creditors Press for Movement on Asset Sales

AlQabas has a report on the meeting in Dubai between TID and the Creditors' Co-ordinating Committee this Tuesday.

Here are the key points from the article.

The first topic discussed was the sale of Boubyan Bank shares where the desire is to get the best possible price.  Mike Grant, the Chief Restructuring Officer, is reported to have briefed on a meeting with National Bank of Kuwait in which they evidenced continuing interest in purchasing the shares assuming that TID and Commercial Bank can come to an agreement.  NBK is said to want to purchase at the market price.  The article then mentions that the price should be no less than KD0.600 per share.  BB has been trading at around KD0.540 to KD0.560 the past few days.  So I suppose that's not an unreasonable price. The article notes that the BB shares are outside the asset realization program under TID's restructuring so that they are not pressed to sell them.  NBK is awaiting a formal written response on the potential sale, including the proposed sales price.

The second topic has to do with the sale of assets that are subject to the restructuring.  Nothing has been done until now because of the previous legal cases which frustrated the closing of the restructuring.  Now with TID's entrance under protection from the Financial Stability Law, it's expected apparently that up to eight more months may pass before the restructuring will be finalized.  Since TID has to pay 5% of the principal amount during the first year, the lenders are encouraging the company to develop a clear asset sales plan so that it will be ready to spring into action when legal formalities are completed.  One target is to have foreign assets ready as the expectation is that these will be able to be sold quicker than Kuwaiti assets.

The Company has written expressing its commitment to move forward, but has apparently noted that there might be circumstances outside its control - a decision by the FSL Court or the Central Bank.  No doubt, this message sent more than one shiver down the creditors' spines.  And probably revived some of the previous concerns about management - the sort that motivated creditors to ask the Central  Bank to put a monitor into TID.  TID's letter in this regard has been forwarded to the Creditors' Co-Ordinating Committee's lawyers for study.