Spanish developer Habitat talks to creditors
Saturday, September 20, 2008 @ 10:40 AM
Ailing Spanish property firm Habitat will meet creditor banks on Friday to try to avoid filing for administration after losing 650 million euros ($942.8 million) in the first half of the year, a company spokeswoman said on Friday.
"There's going to be a meeting today with the creditor banks to talk about possible future scenarios for the company. Habitat wants to avoid going into administration and we are going to analyse the different possibilities," she said.
One possibility would be to ask shareholders for a capital injection, she said.
The syndicate of 39 creditor banks is led by Spain's biggest savings bank, La Caixa.
Construction to services group Ferrovial, owner of British airport operator BAA, has 20 percent of Habitat, and other leading shareholders include businessmen Bruno Figueras and Josep Sunol.
Habitat refinanced 1.586 billion euros in debt it took on after buying Ferrovial's property subsidiary in February, after weeks of negotiations during it which it warned it could file for administration. (Reporting by Andres Gonzalez; Editing by Paul Bolding)
Source:
Reuters