Investment Dar set for creditor showdown

13 June 2011

Creditors expected to insist on oversight of Kuwait firm while it repays debt

Kuwait’s The Investment Dar (TID) is set for a confrontational meeting with creditors to discuss the details of a restructuring plan recently announced by the local courts.

The company and its banks, which are owed about $3.7bn, are understood to disagree about the oversight that creditors should be allowed to have over the management of TID. At a meeting between TID and the coordinating committee of creditors in Dubai on 9 June, both sides disagreed about what level of oversight the court’s judgement allowed creditors.

Those disagreements are expected to continue at a meeting between all creditors and TID’s management in Dubai on 14 June and Kuwait on 15 June.

“Previous agreements have given creditors the ability to appoint two non-executive directors and have a supervising role over the company’s management, we think the court judgement supports that,” says one source close to the process.

At the 9 June meeting, TID is understood to have said it believes only much more limited creditor oversight is necessary.

If the disagreement continues, creditors say they will bring take the issue back to the Kuwaiti courts and say TID is refusing to comply with the terms of the restructuring plan.

TID could not be reached to comment.

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