Nine days after taking on the NOK 4 million job of president and ceo at Kvaerner, Helge Lund has resigned from the board, although he will stay in his Aker Group posts and retain the right and obligation to participate in board meetings.
In the meantime Kvaerner has signed all new loan agreements in relation to the new financial and industrial plan for Kvaerner Group. An integrated part of the plan is a restructuring of the outstanding borrowings of the Kvaerner Group. The debt restructuring contains two main elements being (i) conversion of NOK 4.5 billion of the outstanding borrowings into subordinated bonds due October 30, 2011, and (ii) the rescheduling of the company’s outstanding borrowings in the approximate principal amount of NOK 4.0 billion, into bullet term loans due on December 31, 2004.
Kvaerner’s lenders subsequently signed an Inter-creditor Agreement regulating the relationship between all financial creditors which in effect means the Group can now call on the equity proceeds from the Directed Offering.
The group also announce changes to the organisation of its business areas and parent company into divisions for shipbuilding and pulp & paper, E&C (Engineering & Construction) and oil & gas. The Group has shelved plans to sell its Shipbuilding and Pulp & Paper operations.
