Eircom has appointed Morgan Stanley to advise it on the sale of the company, it revealed today. The company is expecting to receive proposals from interested parties in mid-March.
“ERC Ireland Holdings Limited (‘the company’) today confirmed that the directors of the company have authorised the initiation of a process to assess the interest of third-party strategic and financial investors in a sale of the company,” Eircom said in a statement.
“This process will be conducted as part of the wider balance sheet remediation process currently under way,” Eircom said.
The move follows extensive negotiations between Eircom and its senior lenders.
In December, a €200m proposal to restructure Eircom by shareholder ST Telemedia (STT) was rejected by the Irish incumbent operator’s first lien lenders and as a result STT members of Eircom’s board resigned with immediate effect.
Eircom said today that first and second-lien lenders voted to extend a “covenant waiver” on the company’s €3.65bn debt until 31 March, once again enabling it to avoid liquidation.
