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Shelter Afrique in deal with creditors

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Shelter Afrique managing director Femi Adewole. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Troubled mortgage lender Shelter Afrique’s bond holders have approved a financial restructuring plan that will allow the financier to reschedule repayments of a Sh13 billion debt it owes 10 development finance institutions and safeguard against a possible default.

The decision of the special extraordinary meeting held yesteday in Nairobi with the holders of a bond it issued in 2013 is set to provide some relief to the troubled financier which has sought a compromise with its financiers.

Failure to get the bond holders’ consent at yesterday’s meeting could have plunged the financier into deeper financial stress amid the looming repayments to note holders that are due in September.

“We are very happy with the support we got,” Shelter Afrique managing director Femi Adewole said on phone after the meeting without divulging further details.  The financier is expected to file with the Capital Markets Regulator (CMA) the outcome of the vote and subsequently publish it in a public notice. Business Daily learned that bondholders voted to back the debt restructuring, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Shelter Afrique owed the 10 financiers a cumulative Sh13 billion (about $129 million) as at October last year.

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