Smile Telecoms Holding announced on March 30th, 2021 that its Restructuring Plan had been approved by the English courts and agreed amongst its Lenders, a new restructuring tool recently made available in the UK which helps facilitate the injection of new money by way of a debt restructuring.
A close source to the transaction affirmed that Smile is the first non-European company to achieve such feat.
According to a very reliable source, the restructuring plan that also regulates how the new funds will be injected should have closed on March 19th. This did not happen on that date, as Public Investment Corporation (PIC), the pension fund for South African ( a shareholder and Lender) elected not to support the Restructuring Plan and put the interest of the Smile, other 5 Lenders and other shareholders at risk and was after the negative publicity that some media circulated thinking wrongly it was the end road for Smile.
The Shareholders of Smile and namely Alnahal the major shareholder mitigated this risk and did the necessary to get the Restructuring Plan approved on March 30, 2021.