Punch Taverns noteholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of requests by the pub company to waive its covenants that would otherwise put the firm in default, as part of the restructure of its £2.3bn debt.
Punch A creditors voted by a margin of 99.4% in favour, based on a turnout of 95%. There were no votes against the move among the 92.1% of Punch B creditors who voted.
The votes were held across 16 different meetings today.
Punch said: “The covenant waivers requested will expire at the latest on 19 November 2014. It is a condition of the waivers that certain milestones are met, including that a restructuring to implement the proposals announced on 26 June 2014 is launched by 11 August 2014.”
Under the restructure plan, which will cut Punch’s net debt by £600m, the company will raise £50m of equity and undergo a debt-for-equity swap that will dilute ordinary shareholders to 15% of the enlarged share capital.
The agreement, announced in June, was reached subject to the restructuring being launched by 11 August.
