SINGAPORE (Feb 16): Hyflux said its chief executive officer Olivia Lum volunteered to contribute her entire stake of 267 million shares and other securities in the embattled water-treatment company as part of a restructuring plan.
Lum and the board of directors said all their preference shares and perpetual capital securities are to be distributed solely to all other holders upon completion of the proposed revamp, according to a Feb 16 stock exchange filing.
Under the restructuring plan filed by Hyflux with the High Court, ordinary shareholders of Hyflux will receive 2.74% of shares in total.
While about $900 million is owed to 34,000 holders of its perpetual securities and preference shares, its unsecured bank creditors are owed $717 million, and unsecured contingent creditors and medium-term noteholders have claims of $915 million and $271 million respectively.
Under the proposed plan, holders of Hyflux perpetual securities and preference shares, who are owed $900 million, will receive a total of $27 million in cash and a 10.26% of the company. Shares in Hyflux last traded at 21 cents before it was suspended.
Unsecured creditors who are not holders of perpetual securities and preference shares will receive 27% of shares post-reorganisation, and a total cash distribution of $232 million.
The Singapore-based firm, whose main asset is one of South-east Asia's biggest desalination plants, has been trying to overcome months of financial distress after a stumble caused by an ill-timed expansion into the energy business. Hyflux's total debt amounts to almost $3 billion.
In October, Hyflux said a consortium comprising the Salim Group and the Medco Group will take a majority stake in the company with an investment totalling $530 million.
"I have volunteered to give up receiving any management shares in the company," Ms Lum said in the statement. "If this restructuring plan is approved, all of the interests of mine and the other board members in Hyflux will be given solely to this group. In this way, it is my hope that they may reap the future benefits which the Salim-Medco consortium deal can offer them." -- with additional reporting by The Edge Singapore
See: Hyflux replies to stakeholders' queries
See also: Hyflux's perp holders get back only 10% of investment in restructure
