Sources inform ''Globes'' that Markstone Capital Partners Group LLC, which owns 23.2% of Psagot Investment House Ltd. through Phenomenal Holdings, is in talks on debt settlement with Phenomenal's bondholders in order to avoid insolvency in early March.
In early February, "Globes" reported that Phenomenal failed to meet a NIS 15 million principal and interest payment to its bondholders in January. Under the bond's trust deed, the payment can be deferred by 30 days.
Market sources believe that Phenomenal (formerly Prisma Investment House) is asking its bondholders for a six-month postponement for the interest and principle payment until August 2014, and to consolidate the next interest and principle payment. In exchange, Markstone will bring forward NIS 10 million in future interest payments, which currently are due to be paid when the bond matures in 2018.
So far as is known, Markstone is offering the bondholders increased collateral, so that if Phenomenal misses the August payment, they can become creditors of other Markstone portfolio companies. However, the offer does not include raising the interest rate on Phenomenal's bond in exchange for the deferred payment, and the bondholders will have to be satisfied with the early interest payment.
The bond in question is a private bond issued by Prisma in 2007 to a limited number of investment institutions in the amount of NIS 107 million. Prisma collapsed in 2009 under the weight of its own debt, two years after Markstone established it at an investment of NIS 2 billion.
Markstone, run by Ron Lubash and Amir Kess, controls Phenomenal through Amfic, a company with a debt of NIS 400 million. Some banks are handling this debt through their special credit departments.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 26, 2014
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