Court declares permanent PKPU status to Bumi

IDX-listed coal giant PT Bumit Resources Tbk said that the Central Jakarta Commercial Court had on June 9 declared a permanent debt payment postponement (or known locally as PKPU) status to the heavily indebted company until June 30.

The court also decided to hold hearing of deliberation of the panel of judges on June 30, Bumi said in a statement on Monday.

The granting of the permanent PKPU status to Bumi came after creditors on June 6 unanimously approved the granting of the extension of temporary PKPU for 22 days to Bumi as verification of creditors? claims had yet to be completed.

?Until the date of June 6, 2016, there are 70 creditors who represent Rp 89,035,684,898,741 from the total claims, have not been verified. Given the fact that there are still many creditors and claims has not been verified, therefore it is deemed necessary and reasonable to extend the PKPU process,? the statement said.

Under a PKPU, a company will be given an opportunity to propose a debt settlement to all of its creditors, a restructuring process supervised by the court. If the company fails to obtain creditors' approval for the debt settlement proposal, the court will declare the company bankrupt. One of Bumi creditors, Castleford Investment Holdings Ltd filed the PKPU.

This portal previously reported that Bumi?s total debts could exceed US$9 billion, from previous estimate of $4 billion, amid multiple claims made by some bondholders. Bumi has said that the PKPU status has not affected its mining operations.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak