Aviation

Garuda Creditors Set to Vote on $9.7bn Debt Restructuring

Garuda chief executive Irfan Setiaputra said he was confident the plan would get the required votes. File photo: Reuters.

Creditors of Jakarta-based airline Garuda Indonesia‘s creditors are set to vote on a $9.7 billion debt restructuring proposal.

A simple majority is needed to secure a binding agreement for all 501 claimants, which include Rolls-Royce and Airbus.

The vote was originally scheduled for Wednesday but Garuda asked administrators to postpone it until Friday.

The court verified 142.42 trillion rupiah ($9.65 billion) worth of claims against Garuda that it will recognise under the process, but that could be challenged right up to the vote.

Garuda fell into financial troubles when the pandemic decimated global air travel.

The airline has proposed settling its debt to aircraft lessors and Islamic bond holders with new 9-year bonds and equity worth $1.15 billion, and offered to banks and state firms a loan maturity extension by 22 years with a 0.1% interest rate.

Irfan Setiaputra, the airline’s chief executive, said he was confident the plan would get the required votes and said Airbus and engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce had already backed the proposals.

“We are quite optimistic that the (support from) lessors and creditors are already at a level above 50%,” he said on Thursday.

Rolls-Royce’s units and Airbus filed 9.9 trillion rupiah and 7.8 trillion rupiah of claims to Garuda respectively, according to a court document.

Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell

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George Russell

George Russell is a freelance writer and editor based in Hong Kong who has lived in Asia since 1996. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Post, Variety, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.