HAL's Safilo Bond Offer Extended To Nov 27

Dutch investor HAL Holding NV (HAL.AE) said Wednesday it has extended the offer to Safilo Group SpA's (SFL.MI) bondholders to November 27 adding that as of Wednesday 43.01% of bonds were tendered.

In an emailed statement, HAL said that the new settlement date will be Dec 2.

HAL, which owns a 2% stake in the company, agreed last month to increase its stake in Safilo to between 37.23% and 49.9% and to help in the recapitalization by injecting around EUR283 million into the Italian debt-laden company.

The agreement is conditional on HAL buying at least 60% of EUR195 million worth of outstanding high-yield 2013 notes linked to Safilo.

Last week Safilo, the world's second-largest maker of eyewear after Luxottica (LUX), said in a statement that in the event that HAL's tender offer wasn't successful, "the company would again be in a highly leveraged situation and will, in all likelihood, default under its banking facilities by the year end".

At the end of September, Safilo's net debt was EUR586.3 million. Its main creditors are Italy's two biggest banks Intesa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP.MI) and UniCredit SpA (UCG.MI).

-By Sabrina Cohen and Chiara Vasarri, Dow Jones Newswires, [phone]; [e-mail]