West Virginia governor Jim Justice has offered to pay Credit Suisse $300 million and half the proceeds from the sale of his mining company to settle debts tied to supply-chain funds from fallen Greensill Capital.
The proposal, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, is part of the talks between Bluestone Resources Inc., the governor’s coal mining business, and investment banking giant Credit Suisse, which manages the funds for Greensill’s lending business.
Greensill loaned about $850 million to Bluestone as the mining company became one of its biggest clients in recent years. Around $690 million worth of debt was raised through the Credit Suisse funds, according to disclosure from the Swiss lender obtained by WSJ.
Last week, Justice and his family members, on behalf of Bluestone, wrote a letter to Credit Suisse with the proposal to settle the loan. They proposed to pay $300 million in cash by refinancing part of the debt and promised half of the proceeds of a future sale or initial public offering of the mining company.
The bank’s executives were said to be considering opening talks over a deal, but there were doubts on whether refinancing was a viable option and how much Bluestone would be worth in a sale, a source told the Financial Times.
“Credit Suisse Asset Management is doing everything we can to maximize recovery for our fund investors,” a spokesperson told WSJ. “If outstanding debtors put proposals to us, we will of course look at them.”
On Monday, Credit Suisse said an additional $400 million will have been returned to investors by the end of the week, bringing the total to $6.3 billion out of the $10 billion held in funds when these were suspended in March.
Apart from Bluestone, the bank identified Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance and collapsed US construction firm Katerra as “problematic” borrowers. The three companies owed Credit Suisse a combined $2.3 billion.
