Israel's Ampal-American wants to postpone payments on debentures

By Marisa Wong

Madison, Wis., Dec. 19 - Ampal-American Israel Corp. said it has asked the trustees of its series A, series B and series C debentures to convene a meeting on Jan. 1 to consider the postponement of principal payments on the debentures for 24 months.

Ampal said it wants to postpone the principal payments because of recent political and security developments in Egypt and because of repeated interruptions of the gas supply to East Mediterranean Gas Co., in which Ampal has a 12.5% interest.

Ampal is not seeking any reduction of the outstanding principal of the debentures and will continue to pay interest under the original payment schedule.

The company said the postponement will give it time to enhance the value of its holding in its wholly owned Israeli subsidiary, Gadot Chemical Tankers and Terminals, and other holdings.

In addition, the postponement would allow Ampal and East Mediterranean Gas to work at reestablishing a steady and continuous gas supply to East Mediterranean Gas or, if their efforts are unsuccessful, to pursue legal remedies against the Egyptian gas supplier and the Government of Egypt with other international shareholders of East Mediterranean Gas from the United States, Germany, Canada and Thailand.

Ampal is a Tel Aviv-based holding company.

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