Despite reputational damage due to the gas pipeline explosion in 2014, LCY Chemicals has moved on, attracting more than 11 lenders. The lenders have seen quite a lot of potential for the company to profit despite the history. In 2020, Singapore-based MMI Holdings extended maturity and cut the pricing of a loan signed in 2015 for as much as $580m. This hard-disk-drive components company extended the tenor for as long as five years and slashed MMI’s debt of $350m. Plus, they slashed the $110m vendor financing from KKR.
They have failed to win approval from China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange to send money. The transfer should at least cover inshore and offshore accounts for the proposed transaction on equity contribution. In the end, KKR owned MMI again, however before the delays of $31m installment payment on MMI’s $580 loan from 2015. As a result MMI encountered financing pressure in the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. But later in the same year the company paid the A&R. When the loan closed in 2015, most of their lenders totalling 14 were Taiwanese.
Lending activity became a real challenge for LCY Chemical due to its bankruptcy as a result of restructuring failure. Thus, around thirteen Taiwanese banks had exposure to it, including the five lenders joining LCY Chemical’s most recent borrowing. A senior loan banker noted that some banks remain concerning the company’s performance after the incidents. But, the major point, after all, is that the company has moved on. They have focused on the borrower and the business. LCY Chemical is among the top three global thermoplastic elastomer producers.
