Koor Gets Preliminary New Loan Conditions For Credit Suisse Shares
21 Novembro 2011 - 11:47AM
Dow Jones News
Koor Industries Ltd. (KOR.TV) said Monday it has reached a
preliminary agreement with lenders Citigroup Inc.(C) and Morgan
Stanley (MS) to improve the conditions for loans it took out to
finance its holding in Credit Suisse Group AG (CS), which declined
sharply in value over the last year.
Koor said the agreement would reduce the interest rate on the
loan and reduce its outstanding credit to a maximum of 500 million
Swiss francs ($545 million).
Koor now owes about CHF750 million to the banks. The agreement
would also lower the price of Credit Suisse shares at which the
banks can demand immediate repayment from Koor from CHF14 to CHF12.
Credit Suisse shares were trading at CHF20.02 at 1018 GMT
Monday.
Before implementing these new terms, Koor and the two banks must
finalize their agreement.
Koor has been buying and selling shares of Credit Suisse since
2009, and recently reported that it lost about three billion
shekels ($800 million) on such investments since January.
Despite that loss, Koor continues to invest in Credit Suisse,
recently purchasing about ILS200 million more in shares.
IDB Holding. Corp. Ltd.(IDBH.TV), a large Israeli holding
company with interests mainly in real estate, technology and
industrial manufacturing, holds 49.5% of Koor, a company investing
in telecommunications and other technological development and
manufacturing.
At 1025 GMT, shares of Koor were down ILS0.66, or 1.47%, at
ILS44.26, and shares of IDB were down ILS1.99, or 4.64%, at
ILS40.90, in a lower Tel Aviv market.
-By Sara Toth Stub, Contributing to Dow Jones Newswires,
saratoth@gmail.com