Garuda Indonesia’s creditors submit claims of $13.8b

Creditors of struggling airline Garuda Indonesia have submitted about 198t rupiah ($13.8b) in claims as part of a debt restructuring, according to court-appointed administrators. The administrators for the flag carrier received claims from more than 470 creditors by the end of a Jan. 5 deadline, Martin Patrick Nagel and Jandri Siadari, members of the team of administrators, wrote in replies to questions from Bloomberg. They will now verify the provisional claims and decide on Jan. 19 what amount are valid and can be included in the restructuring process. Garuda has taken steps to try to buy more time. The company is seeking to extend the maturity of its dollar sukuk -- Islamic debt securities -- by 10 years. Currently they are set to mature next year. In a sign of market concerns regarding the airline’s recovery prospects, the indicated price of the sukuk recently fell to record lows under 23 cents on the dollar. The airline is a major employer and a vital mode of transport for Indonesia, made up of 17,000 islands over an area spanning the distance from New York to London. The state-owned airline was already struggling to stay profitable even before the pandemic brought travel to a standstill. The company entered a court-supervised debt restructuring process after a Jakarta court accepted a petition filed against it in December. <br/>