(Bloomberg) — Lumen Technologies Inc. is asking its creditors for more time to close its controversial restructuring deal as it continues negotiations, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
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The struggling telecommunications firm wants to push the deadline to close the deal by one month to Jan. 31, said the people, who asked not to be identified because talks are private. Creditors who helped Lumen craft the proposal agreed to the extension, but the reprieve hasn’t been finalized, they said.
In recent weeks, Lumen has been holding discussions with banks about pushing out the maturity on its credit line, the people said. The company needs all of the banks to sign on to the restructuring deal for it to go through. Talks have also centered on the bank lenders receiving better priority in the line for repayment, other people said.
The creditors who support the deal were told the company will continue negotiating, an update from a call held earlier this week in which they were told the company was not engaging as intensely as expected, the people said. Lumen’s restructuring proposal would hand the firm $1.2 billion of fresh financing and let creditors swap certain securities tied to its Level 3 unit for new longer-dated bonds.
The proposal drew ire from certain creditors who were left out of the transaction. Some of those investors banded together and submitted an alternative plan to the firm, Bloomberg previously reported.
Representatives for Lumen and its adviser Guggenheim Securities declined to comment.
Lumen, formerly known as CenturyLink, is the offspring of multiple mergers, acquisitions and divestitures and has around $20 billion in debt. The company acquired Qwest Communications in 2011 and bought Level 3 Communications in 2017.
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