Seat Pagine Gialle will not fund coupon payment on Lighthouse notes

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, Nov. 30 - Seat Pagine Gialle SpA will not fund the coupon payment due on Oct. 31 on the 8% notes due 2014 issued by Lighthouse International Co. SA notes by Nov. 30 in light of a requested extension of the deadline for filing a formal answer to Seat Pagine's financial obligations restructuring proposal, according to a news release.

As previously reported, Seat Pagine reached an agreement on the main terms of a consensual restructuring with a bondholders committee and senior coordinating committee last week.

According to the release, a majority of the members of the senior coordinating committee have made a positive preliminary evaluation of the proposal and recommended it to interested parties.

Seat Pagine said the resolutions of different committees are expected to come after Nov. 30, prompting a request by the senior coordinating committee to extend the Nov. 28 deadline for giving a formal response.

In addition, the bondholders' committee's legal adviser told Seat Pagine that it had restructuring and lock-up agreement consent signatures from more than 75% of the holders of the Lighthouse notes.

The company said the decision not to fund the coupon has resulted in some of the Lighthouse noteholders withdrawing their consent signatures.

However, in light of the wide support shown by the noteholders, the company's board plans to postpone the restructuring acceptance deadline to Dec. 14, the release said.

Equity allocation agreement

In addition, the bondholder committee and core shareholders Subcart SA and AI Sub Silver SA have reached an agreement on equity allocation in connection with the financial restructuring.

The shareholders are controlled by Permira Funds and Alfieri Associates Investors, respectively.

Under the allocation agreement, the holders of the Lighthouse notes will receive 90% of the share capital of the company and current Seat Pagine shareholders will maintain 10% of the share capital at the time of closing.

The current shareholders will also receive two tranches of warrants with the right to subscribe new shares.

The first tranche will be exercised at an almost nominal exercise price and will be equal to 2% of the share capital after the restructuring. The second tranche of warrants, for an amount equal to 3% of the share capital, will consist of two-year warrants with a two free exercise mechanism.

Shareholder Sterling Sub Holdings SA, which belongs to CVC Capital Partners, has consented to the equity allocation, the release said.

Seat Pagine is a Turin, Italy-based yellow pages company.

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