Shares of India’s largest wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy Ltd on Thursday declined 3.73 per cent after the company sought a four-month extension repayment of its foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB) due in October. The stock closed at Rs 16.51 after touching an intra-day low of Rs 16.25 on BSE, while the benchmark index, Sensex, shed 0.79 per cent to end trade at 18,349.25.
Suzlon has issued zero-coupon FCCBs worth $200 million (Rs 1085 crore), which are due next month. Following its inability to tie up the requisite funds, the company is meeting bondholders on October 10 to seek their approval to extend the maturity by four months to February 11, 2013.
On Tuesday, the company issued a statement requesting FCCB holders four extra months for redemption. The company said it was in the process of closing various financing measures and “drive alignment between all stakeholders on allocation of cash resources”.
A company spokesperson said: “We intend to redeem the outstanding October FCCBs at the end of the proposed four-month extension, subject to requisite approvals. We are actively working on various sources.”
The spokesperson added: “We have sought this extension in order to have adequate time to complete this exercise, and meet the redemption obligations in complete alignment with all our stakeholders. We believe these initiatives will enable us to optimally allocate resources between our business requirements and debt obligations in a manner that will allow us to obtain relevant approvals from our senior secured lenders. With these measures we remain fully confident of meeting our obligations and preserving value for all our stakeholders.”