Enough bondholders favor Hartford insurer Phoenix Cos. Inc.’s plan to remedy a technical default on some of its 30-year debt that threatened to further upend its balance sheet, Phoenix says.
Phoenix announced Wednesday in a statement on its homepage and in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that the requisite minimum 65 percent of holders of its 7.45 percent bond due 2032 responded affirmatively to its solicitation, seeking their permission to amend covenants to the debt.
The insurer says actually more than 65 percent of eligible debtholders approved the change. Absent their approval, Phoenix faced the grim prospect of having millions of dollars of that bond debt being immediately call due and payable.
Now, Phoenix says, approval of the amendments and waiver allows Phoenix to extend the date for providing its third quarter 2012 Form 10-Q to the bond trustee to March 31. The SEC’s 10-Q filing deadline is March 18.
Meantime, as previously reported last November, Phoenix continues working on restating financial statements for several prior periods due to an accounting glitch.
Phoenix said it intends to file its third quarter 2012 Form 10-Q with the SEC before timely filing of its year-end 2012 Form 10-K. The SEC’s deadline for the Form 10-K filing is March 18.
