NEW YORK—NII Holdings, formerly known as Nextel International, reportedly missed its latest US$41 million interest payments scheduled for last Friday on its 12.75-percent senior serial redeemable notes due 2010, according to Frank Marsala, wireless analyst at Robertson Stephens.
The missed payment followed a similar move on 3 January, when the company said it did not make a scheduled US$8.3 million payment to a group of banks, although it did make a required US$2.4 million interest payment and entered an agreement with a majority of the banks in question that they would not exercise their rights to principal repayments until 22 January.
Marsala said the move hints at a restructuring or a reorganization of NII and benefits Nextel as it is the first step toward improving its consolidated balance sheet.
“A new NII, with a reduced debt balance or with a debt repayment schedule that allows the company to ride out the current difficulties in the Latin American and South American regions, allows Nextel to dedicate its time, effort and resources to the more important domestic business and also presents a cleaner story to a potential consolidator of Nextel down the road,” Marsala said.
