Ice Group is considering raising NOK 2.5 billion to fund a new strategic plan and resolve a dispute between lenders

Ice Group states that it has reached an agreement with the dispute with Golden Tree Asset Management. The dispute revolved around a loan agreement with affiliates of Golden Tree, Ice Group and other lenders. They have now agreed to pay NOK 1.5 billion to put this behind their backs.

In the same press release, Ice Group writes about a new strategy and business plan that will require a total of NOK 1 billion to implement. Thus, the proposed plan and the agreement with Golden Tree would require a total of NOK 2.5 billion in new money.

$1 billion will be used for investment opportunities, including the rollout of the 5G network, the company wrote.

Ice Group will engage DNB Markets and Pareto, as well as law firms Bahr and Thommessen as facilitators in the process.

The company has, among other things, ambitions for a 20 percent market share of smartphones in Norway, revenues of four to five billion kroner in the medium and long term, and an adjusted operating margin of more than 30 percent.

Key elements in this process are balance sheet restructuring to facilitate growth aspects of the business plan and increase our financial flexibility, CEO Evind Heljker wrote in the company’s quarterly report.

Breach of loan agreement

In October last year, it became known as the Golden Tree Lender Ice has been accused of violating the loan agreement 14 times since 2017. Thus, Golden Tree sued the listed telecom operator.

Golden Tree is an American asset management company that was founded in 2000. The company is headquartered in New York City and has offices in London and Singapore.

The company’s largest shareholder has indicated that it does not envision participating in a potential capital increase, and has expressed interest in participating in the recapitalization by converting its stake in convertible bonds, Ice Group writes. The largest shareholder in the telecom operator is Ai Media Holdings (NMT).

In parallel, Ice Group is in discussions on the possible conversion into equity of its debt to the Rasmussen Group worth NOK 546 million and convertible bonds of NOK 760 million, the mobile operator wrote.

I’m deficient

Prior to Ice announcing this new strategic plan and fundraising potential, the company also provided numbers for the third quarter of the year. The total “service turnover” ended at 543 million Danish kroner, compared to 494 million Danish kroner in the same quarter. The result ended at negative 255 million DKK, compared to negative 223 million DKK in the same quarter last year.

Operating profit ended at a negative level of DKK 61 million.

The quarterly report indicates that the mobile operator gained 14,000 new subscribers in the third quarter, which means the company has a total of 677,000 smartphone subscribers.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and/or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases using a link that leads directly to our pages. All or part of the Content may not be copied or otherwise used with written permission or as permitted by law. For additional terms look here.