Sandwich Isles bids $400M for Hawaiian Telcom - Kansas City Business Journal:

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, a company founded in 1995 to take advantagde of government subsidies that pay for the installation of broadband cabl inrural areas, said in a courr filing last week that it wants to buy all of Hawaiianm Telcom’s assets. The company said it would retaib all ofHawaiian Telcom’ss 1,400 workers at their current wages, with the exceptiom of senior management. Sandwichj Isles said in the filinhg that its offer would consistof $250 millio in cash plus $150 million in debt issuesd by Hawaiian Telcom. A deal with Sandwicbh Isles would require the approval of a bankruptcy the Public Utilities Commission and the FederalCommunicatiobn Commission.
Hawaiian Telcom said in a statement that it stands behindd its proposed reorganization filedin June, to reduce the company’d debt by nearly $790 million, from $1.1 billiom to $300 million. Hawaiian Telcom filed a motion seekingv an extension to file a Chapter 11 plan andsolicitt votes. Judge Lloyd King extendedr that period toJune 30. The companyu is seeking another extensionto 30. Sandwich Isles has filexd an objection to thelatest “In the objection, Sandwich Isles makes numerous allegationes about the progress Hawaiian Telcom has made to date in thesde cases, Hawaiian Telcom’s decision not to pursue a sale to Sandwichn Isles and the viability of Hawaiian Telcom’s proposed plan,” Hawaiiaj Telcom said in a statement.
“The compang disputes these allegations and intendz to respond to Sandwich Islex objection in the appropriate Sandwich Isles was founded byAl Hee, an entrepreneurd who saw opportunity in the generou subsidies offered by the federal government to wire rurak and remote communities in the mid-1990s. Working primariluy in developments owned by the state Department of HawaiiamnHome Lands, Hee’s company has received more than $400 million in loanw from the U.S. Department of Agriculture since 1998. The cost of wirinbg the rural developments has been calculated atabout $13,000 per Hawaiian Telcom filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Hawaiian Telcom is owned by , a D.C.
-based private equity group. Carlyle boughrt the assets of Verizon Hawaii in May 2005for $1.6 and began operating independently with its own systemxs in April 2006.