Eircom owned by 150 lenders

Eircom has exited from examinership and the former national telecommunications company is now owned by a group of 150 banks and funds.

A new holding company, Eircom Holdings Limited, has been created, with 150 of Eircom’s lenders getting a stake in Eircom Holdings in proportion to their debts.

An international group of funds and banks known as the coordinating committee of senior lenders, or CoCom make up the largest group of lenders.

CoCom is made up of Alcentra, Avoca, Deutsche Bank, GSO Capital Partners (Blackstone), Harbourmaster Capital Management and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. This grouping controls 29% of the new holding company.

Chairman of the Eircom Group, Ned Sullivan, said “A new chapter for the group begins today. Our new shareholders are fully committed to a strong future for Eircom. Having successfully navigated examinership and the consequent restructuring of the balance sheet, the group can look forward to executing the next phases of its strategy.”

The group has had €1.7bn of debt removed from the balance sheet, a reduction of 40% of group debt as a result of the examinership process. The company will now enter a five-year restructuring programme to put it on a sustainable footing.

The strategy will see the group shed 1,000 jobs through voluntary redundancy over the next few years, while 5,000 will continue to be employed.

The employee share ownership trust, which had controlled 29.9% of Eircom, has been completely wiped out in the restructuring and is no longer a shareholder. The trust represented 12,500 members, most of whom no longer worked for the company. The trust received €770m in payments since Eircom’s privatisation in 1999.

Singapore Technologies Telemedia, who owned 65% of Eircom, will also no longer be a shareholder in the company.

The Singaporean company withdrew its debt-restructuring proposal and resigned its representatives from the various boards and committees of the group’s companies earlier this year.