Prospect News reports three new defaults for Oct. 16-Oct. 22; S&P one

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, Oct. 24 – Prospect News reported three new defaults for the period of Oct. 16 through Oct. 22.

Specifically, Prospect News reported Phones4U Finance plc (Phosphorus Holdco plc)’s and London Mining plc’s administrations and Pantech Co. Ltd.’s Chapter 15 bankruptcy filing.

Prospect News also reported Chapter 11 and Chapter 15 bankruptcy filings made by LDK Solar Co. Ltd. and its U.S. subsidiaries. However, LDK previously defaulted in connection with a restructuring and a missed interest payment and missed principal payment on its dollar-settled 10% senior notes due 2014.

Prospect News has reported 112 defaults so far for 2014, including 58 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, 10 missed interest payments, nine Chapter 15 bankruptcy filings, four each of administrations and controlled management requests, three each of Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act filings, missed payments and missed principal and interest payments, two each of concurso mercantil filings, insolvencies and missed principal payments and one each of restructurings, bankruptcy filings, bankruptcy administrations, defaults, judicial recovery requests, Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings, missed interest payments paid within the grace period, reconstructions, reorganizations, distressed exchanges, curatorships and liquidations.

Meanwhile, Standard & Poor’s said its global corporate default tally rose to 50 issuers this week after Hidili Industry International Development completed the buyback of $197.2 million of its outstanding 8 5/8% senior unsecured notes due 2015 at a substantial discount to the par value.

S&P said it considers the transaction to be a distressed exchange. The ratings agency subsequently lowered its corporate credit rating on Hidili to SD from CC.

Accounting for 18 of the defaults so far this year, S&P said missed interest or principal payments have overtaken bankruptcy filings, which account for 15 defaults, as the most common reason for default in 2014. Of the remainder, 11 resulted from distressed exchanges, three were confidential, and one stemmed from a judicial reorganization, one from regulatory regulation and one from a creditor protection filing.

Of the 50 issuers that have defaulted so far this year, S&P said 25 are based in the United States, 13 in the emerging markets, seven in Europe and five in the other developed nations, including Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

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