NSC creditors pick GIHL

Majority of the creditor-banks of the National Steel Corp. (NSC) have reportedly accepted the improved offer of Global Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. (GIHL).

According to sources involved in the talks, 60 percent or a majority of the banks have accepted GIHL’s offer for NSC.

Even those who reportedly had some questions about the length of payment, sources said, did not do anything "negative" to derail the acceptance of GIHL’s offer.

The sources also said a date for the signing of the MOA is now being set.

After the MOA signing, a more detailed acquisition agreement would be drawn up and signed.

With an agreement reached between the creditor-banks and GIHL, the LNM Group loses its chance to make a bid for NSC.

The LNM Group, in its last ditch effort to get the banks to listen to its own improved offer, had irked lawyer Danilo L. Concepcion, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-appointed liquidator of NSC.

Smarting from LNM’s accusation of an "unfair" bidding process, Concepcion had said that at the very outset of the bidding, creditors of NSC had already determined that the offer of GIHL was far superior to that of LNM Holdings N.V.

According to Concepcion, the creditor banks believe that the guaranteed cash payment by GIHL amounting to P13.5 billion over a 10-year period was better than the P2.3-billion payment proposed by LNM.

Concepcion clarified that under LNM’s proposal, its cash payment would be payable only after all the legal issues concerning the NSC Iligan plant have been resolved in favor of NSC.