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Technology Stocks : Loral Space & Communications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (4091)	7/31/1998 9:40:00 AM
From: Valueman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

Note near the end of this story--UCOM is interested in selling satellite assets, but not their Iridium stake. The other satellite assets they have are the L-Star birds at SS/L. Thus, it does not appear they want to be part of that project. FOCUS - Thai handphone firm TAC rolls over debt By Chris Johnson BANGKOK, July 30 (Reuters) - One of Thailand's best known telecommunications companies on Friday announced a major rollover of its foreign debt in a move which analysts said should ensure the survival of an essentially healthy group. Mobile telephone firm Total Access Communications (TACC.SI) (TAC) said it renegotiated repayment of $537.7 million in loans of varying lengths with 50 banks for up to six years. The deal involves extensions of maturity of 11 credit facilities with principal repayments or maturing debt in 1998. ''The full amounts of several export credit facilities, bilateral agreements and a one-year syndicated loan have been extended into amortising term loans with a final maturity in November, 2004,'' TAC's parent company, United Communication Industry Plc (UCOM) said in a statement. Announcing the deal, UCOM chairman Boonchai Bencharongkul, said TAC had agreed with its creditors to raise 1.2 billion baht ($29 million) in new capital within the next 36 months. If TAC could not raise this money, it would have to renegotiate the debt rollover, he told a news conference. ''The rollover is (to) allow the company to adjust to Thailand's economic crisis,'' Boonchai said. The company statement said the rollover involved the previously-announced extension of a $200-million one-year syndicated loan due in April 1998. The rollover agreement was made with agencies including the U.S. Exim Bank, Finnish Export Credit, Finnish Guarantee Board and Export Credit & Guarantee Board of Britain. Creditors included banks from the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Australia, Singapore, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Finland and Taiwan. The company said it had kept interest and principal current throughout the negotiations. ''In the future, the structure of the loan extensions will enable TAC to continue making full interest and principal repayments,'' it said. Analysts welcomed the rollover, which they said would help the firm cope with difficulties caused by the sharp depreciation of the Thai baht over the last year. TAC made an unrealised foreign exchange loss in 1997 of 22.06 billion baht, which pushed it into a net attributable loss of 19.7 billion baht for the year. ''This company is intrinsically strong from an operational point of view,'' said Gautam Kapoor, regional telecoms analyst at ING Barings in Singapore. ''In 1998, TAC will have an operating cash flow before capex (capital expenditure) debt servicing and working capital of 7.3 billion baht,'' he said. ''But it has interest payments and debt repayments due in 1998 of around nine billion baht.'' ''If the debt is rolled over, the picture for the company looks much prettier,'' Kapoor said. A TAC official said on Thursday the company's total foreign debt was $1.18 billion. He said the company's rollover was being managed by Union Bank of Switzerland and Lehman Brothers. In a separate move, UCOM said it would open talks with its creditors to roll over $400 million of its own foreign debt. Boonchai said the company also planned to sell many of its foreign assets including investments in satellite projects. But he said UCOM would not sell its stake in the Iridium (IRIDF - news) global satellite mobile telephone system. UCOM's subsidiary Thai Satellite Telecommunication (TSC) owns a five percent stake in the $5.0 billion Iridium consortium and will operate a Thai gateway to the network when it begins operations later this year, industry sources said. Boonchai gave no details of the assets to be sold by UCOM. ($1.0 equals 41 baht)