Richard Li's Phone Company, Vivacom, Gets Lender Waiver on Covenant Breach

Vivacom AD, the Bulgarian phone company controlled by Hong Kong businessman Richard Li, received a waiver from its lenders on a breach of the company’s loan covenant, according to three people familiar with the talks.

The waiver, which runs until October 29, allows the company to proceed with a 1.5 billion euro ($1.93 billion) debt restructuring plan, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private.

Vivacom, which has loans maturing between 2015 and 2018, breached the limits on debt relative to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, the people said. Vivacom’s debt represented 7.5 times Ebitda at the end of June, one of the people said. The company was allowed a maximum level of 7.2 times, the person said.

Li’s PineBridge Investments, which controls Vivacom, has recently hired Blackstone Group LP as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP as a legal advisor, the people said.

Natasha Baxter, a spokeswoman for Blackstone in London declined to comment. Bogdan Bogdanov, director for investor relations for Vivacom in Sofia, didn’t return an e-mail seeking comment. An outside spokesperson for PineBridge declined to comment.

PineBridge, previously owned by the investment advisory and asset management businesses of American International Group Inc., bought a 65 percent stake in Vivacom in 2007.

Deutsche Bank AG, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, UBS AG and UniCredit SpA arranged the 1.6 billion euro leveraged loan facility for the acquisition, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Isabell Witt in London on iwitt4@bloomberg.net.

• Tweet
• More
  • Business Exchange
  • Buzz up!
  • Digg
• Print
• Email