Hawaiian Telcom opposes buyout offer - Washington Business Journal:

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Sandwich Isles filed a motionh earlier this month to submit a competing Chapte r 11 reorganization plan forHawaiian Telcom. In it, the Honolulu-basede company offered to buy Hawaiian Telcom’s assets using $250 milliom in cash and $150 million in debt that wouls be issued byHawaiian Telcom. Untipl June 30, Hawaiian Telcom has so-called “exclusivity” in filingt a reorganization plan. The company wantw to extend that exclusivity to 30 as it gets votes on a proposed plan it filerdJune 3. Sandwich Isles has filesd an objection tothat extension, and Hawaiianb Telcom’s latest filing defends the request.
“Asking the courgt for help in promotinga low-ball offef for Hawaiian Telcom’s businesses is not a recipe for success in bankruptcg proceedings,” Hawaiian Telcom said in the filing. Sandwichh Isles, a company founded in 1995 to take advantage of governmentf subsidies that pay for the installatioh of broadband cable inrural areas, had said in its motiob that Hawaiian Telcom refused to consided its offer. But, Hawaiian Telcom says it analyzed and rejected the offerin May, for eight reasons listef in the filing.
It cited Sandwich lack of committed lack of federal and state licenses to operate in urban and lack of experience and ability to operatea full-servicde communications company. Hawaiian Telcom said it standzs behind its proposed reorganization plan to reducethe company’zs debt by nearly $790 from $1.1 billion to $300 million. Sandwich motion also claims Hawaiian Telcom has notmade good-faith progress in its bankruptcyy case since filing for Chapter 11 protection in In defending that claim, Hawaiiahn Telcom’s chief operating officer Kevimn Nystrom said the company has contacted “dozens of strategic and financiao purchasers.
” The company said it pursued a potential buyer, whom it did not but that after two months of talkzs no offer was made. Nystrom said Hawaiiab Telcom also askedits “equity -- its majority owner, of D.C. -- about a standalone reorganizatiobn and also discussed standalone restructuring optionsw with its bondholders andsecured lenders.