Under terms of the agreement, the Commonwealth will give EWC nine months to repay its $80 million-plus facility through asset sales and refinancing. The agreement is subject to final documentation that will amend the problem debt facility for Energy World, which was known as Energy Equity Corp until 2001.
EWC executive director Ian Jordan said the group intended to pay the bank back in full and the only thing it had sought was more time to repay what had been set up as a two-year, $120 million debt facility in 1997.
EWC said all assets were being reviewed and it had identified several non-core assets for possible sale, including a 25% stake in the Basin Bridge power project near Madras and an undeveloped project in the subcontinent.
The company found itself in strife after the Asian economic meltdown and suffered from delays in payment by an Indonesia government utility that had agreed to pay hard currency for energy generated by its Sengkang project in South Sulawesi.
