Bond deadline looms for MIE

摘要

MIE holdings was last week struggling to convince bondholders to approve an exchange offer that is seen as crucial to preventing it from joining a growing list of Chinese offshore bond defaults. The Chinese oil and gas explorer and producer had asked holders of its US$315.916m 7.5% bonds to switch into new three-year notes with a higher coupon, in a bid to delay redemption from the original maturity of April 25. A source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday that the company had reached about 70% in approvals, still short of its 90% threshold for the exchange offer to go ahead. MIE had already sweetened the deal for bondholders and delayed the deadline until 4pm London time on March 29, a clear sign that it had struggled to find enough takers.