Tele Columbus creditors hope to buy Orion Cable

Creditors of German cable network operator Tele Columbus are formulating a plan to auction the company’s parent, Orion Cable, in a bid to recoup part of their investment, Reuters reports citing several people familiar with the matter. The creditors, including Alcentra, York Capital, Golden Tree and the Bank of Ireland, hope the plan will put pressure on Orion to give up the assets. Previous efforts to sell indebted Tele Columbus have failed due to lack of interest from potential buyers, while the company’s owners, led by London-based financial investor Scott Lanphere, rejected the idea of letting creditors swap debt for equity. Lanphere is demanding that creditors give the owners EUR50 million (USD73.6 million) in compensation for lost property if they go through with the auction. Otherwise, the owners will let Tele Columbus slide into insolvency, sources said. An agreement with creditors on EUR920 million of debt expired at the end of November.