Afren defaults on bond interest payment as restructure rolls on
SHARES in oil firm Afren were down by 1.87 per cent yesterday, after the company announced it had defaulted on an interest payment of $12.8m (£8.22m) due at the end of last week.
The group had previously announced that it would fail to pay the interest due on its 2019 bond notes, but added it had received assurances that the bondholder committee “has no current intention to take enforcement action” as a result of the default.
Afren is currently midway through financial restructuring, and completed interim funding of $200m in April. However, the company said it was continuing to “seek to preserve cash until the full restructuring has been completed”.
At the beginning of May, new boss Alan Linn said Afren will consider pulling out of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and instead focus on Nigeria. Afren has faced a number of difficulties in Kurdistan over the past year, with issues over payments from the regional government as well as security concerns.