Celestial Nutrifoods' future in doubt after still coming up short for 2009 convertibles put

By Jennifer Chiou

New York, March 29 - If Celestial Nutrifoods Ltd. is unable to reach a settlement agreement with holders of its zero-coupon convertible bonds, the company may be unable to continue its operations, according to an independent auditor's report released on Friday.

The report reiterated the previous news that holders of S$234.6 million of the company's S$235.0 million of zero-coupon convertibles exercised their June 12, 2009 put option.

The company still is unable to meet the payment obligation, the report said, noting that as of Dec. 31, Celestial's current assets of RMB 448,065,000, including cash and cash equivalents of RMB 361,816,000, far exceed its liabilities, including the convertibles that have a carrying amount of RMB 1,380,309,000.

As already reported in August 2009, the company was searching for an "amicable solution" regarding the early redemption.

In May 2009, Celestial Nutrifoods said it would not be able to meet this payment obligation unless it obtained new funding in a currency other than Chinese yuan drawable outside of the People's Republic of China before June 12, 2009. The company had added that it was not optimistic about its ability to obtain this funding.

Celestial NutriFoods is a Singapore-based soy protein-based food and beverage product manufacturer in China.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.