A step in the right direction

After agreeing to a proposed £3.5 billion debt-for-equity swap in July, bondholders in Telewest have approved the final terms of a deal that will take the company closer to emerging from bankruptcy

The long-running saga of Telewest’s restructuring took another step forward last month when the cable company reached an agreement with a group of creditors. Under the terms of the plan, Telewest bondholders will now receive 98.5% of the company, leaving shareholders with the remaining 1.5%.

This is a marked improvement for the ad hoc group of bondholders, which includes WR Huff Asset Management, Liberty Media Group and IDT Corporation, who had agreed in principle in September 2002 to