JBF says working with lenders, plants running 'satisfactorily'

REUTERS - Indian polyester maker JBF Industries said on Thursday it was working with its lenders to resolve cashflow issues and it stressed that all plants were running "satisfactorily."

The stock closed 5.9 percent higher, having hit a three-year low earlier in the session. It has dived more than 20 percent this week over lingering concerns about the company's debt.

Banking sources told Reuters this week that JBF RAK, an affiliate of JBF Group in the United Arab Emirates, is in talks with banks there about renegotiating about 2 billion dirhams ($544.53 million) of debt.

JBF's board is also due to meet on Friday to discuss the company's earnings and also the sale or restructuring of the company's overseas units to cut debt.

The meeting had been originally scheduled for Thursday.

"The company is working along with its lenders towards resolving cashflow issues. Furthermore, despite rumours of the company's operations being impacted, all plants are running satisfactorily," JBF said in a filing on Thursday.

JBF has previously denied rumours of defaults on loans in international operations, calling them "baseless" in a stock exchange filing on Tuesday. There was no delay in payment of interest or principal to any bank in the UAE as of June 30, 2017, the company has said.

However, it said payments to Indian lenders have been delayed, saying recent policy changes of the Indian government have hurt its cashflows.

India Ratings and Research, which cut the company's rating to 'D', said last month the downgrade was on "account of a significant deterioration in the group's financial risk profile, resulting from losses in overseas operations."

($1 = 3.6729 UAE dirham)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru and Devidutta Tripathy in Mumbai; Editing by Euan Rocha and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)