Nordgold reschedules meeting of Eurobond holders to Nov due to lack of quorum

MOSCOW. Aug 29 (Interfax) - Nordgold has rescheduled a meeting of holders of the group's dollar-denominated Eurobonds maturing in 2024 to vote on changing the terms of servicing the bonds to early November due to the absence of a quorum, the Russian gold miner's subsidiary Celtic Resourses Holdings DAC, the issuer of the bonds, reported.

At the end of August, Nordgold proposed that bondholders agree to reschedule interest payments on the bonds until the maturity date, as well as to "discharge the Issuer and the Guarantors [of the Eurobonds] from covenants and certain events of defaults."

The consent solicitation was open to investors who held bonds as of September 22. The deadline for submitting consent instructions was 4:00 p.m. London time on September 28. A meeting of bondholders was scheduled for September 29.

Celtic Resources said the deadline for the vote has now been rescheduled for 4:00 p.m. London time on November 2 and the meeting is set for November 3.

Nordgold placed the five-year Eurobond issue of $400 million at 4.125% in October 2019.

The company said in April 2022 that, due to technical difficulties encountered by the issuer and guarantors of the bonds with the transfer of funds to the account of the principal payment agent, a coupon on the bonds was not paid on time.

Nordgold has been subject to U.S. blocking sanctions since June 2022. After the sanctions were imposed, the company said that, as part of the process of winding down operations, the issuer of the Eurobonds invites investors to make their proposals to sell their bonds to the group. The announcement said that the "issuer and the guarantors may be limited in their ability to make payments in U.S. dollars after the cut-off date" set by the wind-down license issued by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which expired on August 31, 2022.

Since then the company has not publicly said how it is fulfilling its obligations on the Eurobonds.