Yingli noteholders seek repayments in 3 mo

Yingli Green Energy Holding Co Ltd (NYSE:YGE) said today that the holders of overdue notes issued by one of its subsidiary require that it pays back both the principal and interest within three months.

Baoding Tianwei Yingli New Energy Company Limited, a unit of the Chinese solar panel maker, is having trouble repaying CNY 1.4 billion of medium-term notes (MTNs) that matured on May 12, 2016 and a roughly CNY-357-million portion of MTNs totalling CNY 1 billion that were due on October 13, 2015. Bank of Communications Co Ltd (BoCom) is the lead underwriter of both note batches.

The Yingli unit met with the noteholders on April 18 to report on its recent operating conditions and to provide more information about the potential introduction of strategic investors and liquidation of certain assets. After the meetings, the holders have decided that Tianwei Yingli should repay principal and interest of the MTNs plus penalty for default payments as soon as possible and within three months of the meetings. Also, the firm should come up with a repayment plan with quarterly repayment schedules and specific repayment measures.

In March, Yingli said it had formed a special committee, consisting solely of independent directors, that will try to resolve the debt repayment issues. A month later, the company posted a larger fourth-quarter (Q4) net loss than in 2015, hit by a CNY-1.28-billion impairment on long-lived assets. It guided for 2017 module shipments of between 2.1 GW and 2.2 GW, broadly in line with the 2.17 GW shipped in 2016.

(CNY 1.0 = USD 0.145/EUR 0.137)

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