This archive report was first published on 22 July 2019.
On July 22, 2019, East African Cables and its parent firm TransCentury Ltd announced the completion of a debt restructuring deal that significantly reduced the group's debt burden.
TransCentury, founded by Kenyan investors in 1997, had invested in various infrastructure companies, including East African Cables, but struggled with heavy debt, losses, and a plummeting share price.
The company's woes were partly due to a series of poor investments, including an attempt to revive the colonial-era Kenya-Uganda railway, which failed and left TransCentury with significant debts.
According to the firms, the debt restructuring deal reduced the group's debt by Sh1.65 billion ($16 million), or 44 percent of the total, and offered a 10-year extension to the tenure of remaining debts.
The deal also included a two-year moratorium on principal repayments and a six-month moratorium on interest payments, significantly reducing the combined group's debt service cash requirements by more than 80 percent in the next two years.
