RUSSIA: Seventh Continent owner “cedes stake” - report

By: just-food.com | 18 November 2009

The heavily-indebted majority owner of Russian grocery chain Seventh Continent has agreed to exchange 15% of the company for the restructuring of US$560m in debt, Russian media reports suggest.

According to business daily Kommersant, Alexander Zanadvorov - who currently holds a 74.8% stake in the retailer - will surrender part of his stake to Seventh Continent's creditors - Natixis, Alfa-Bank and Spinnaker Capital.

Natixis and Seventh Continent declined to comment on the reports, while Alfa-Bank and Spinnaker Capital were unavailable for comment at time of press.

The value of the loan plus interest will be converted into eight-year bonds with a total value of $630m.

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