Creditors postpone Oriental Metals debts

Oriental Metals (Holdings) has reached an agreement with creditors in Hong Kong to restructure debts amounting to $340 million.

Repayment periods to the banks were postponed, executive director Lau Yat-ching said yesterday after the company's annual general meeting.

He said repayment periods would be negotiated.

In the past year, Oriental Metals strived to reduce its heavy debt burden, he said.

Oriental Metals' debt-to-equity ratio was reduced to 1.1 last year from 1.5 in 1997, he said.

Debts were cut to $900 million from $1.6 billion.