Rolta India offers to restructure debt of $1 billion

The rejig announcement helped the stock jump Rs 7.75 or Rs 14.54% to close at Rs 61.05

Rolta India has offered to issue two five-year bonds of $500 million each its bondholders in exchange of outstanding debt of around $1 billion, which it struggles to pay owning to slowing enterprise business and sunken investments in a major Indian defence project. 

The bonds would be in payment-in-kind of 2 per cent, which means the interest would be paid in additional bonds than by cash. The rejig announcement helped the stock jump Rs 7.75 or Rs 14.54 per cent to close at Rs 61.05 on the BSE on Monday.

The company, which offers technology solutions, won a Rs 50,000-crore battlefield management project jointly with public sector Bharat Electronics in 2015. The company, which has invested heavily in the project, expects payments from the government from 2020 for the milestones it has achieved.

It has outstanding bonds of $300 million notes due in 2019, and $200 million notes due in 2018, which it plans to extend the maturity date and reduce coupon rate. 

The company said it is in negotiations for a new deal, but has not agreed on a final settlement. As of October 2016, it had Rs 6,221.4 crore in outstanding debt.