The Avramar rescue-restructuring case has been full of twists and turns. Aqua Bridge, the Emirati fund that emerged as the preferred investor in the fall of 2024 and a few days ago received the green light from the banks to acquire Avramar's loans for €230 million, has not yet submitted the letter of guarantee, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
According to the same sources, the deadline expired about ten days ago, raising questions about the investor's willingness and readiness to proceed.
As revealed by Euro2day.gr, the banks gave the "ring" to the Emirati fund, choosing Aqua Bridge as the investor to purchase Avramar's loans. This choice was accompanied by the obligation to deposit a letter of guarantee for an amount of less than €20 million. However, this obligation has not yet been fulfilled. The agreement between the banks and Aqua Bridge also provides for the provision of a letter of guarantee, with payment to be made within two months. The banks' exposure currently stands at around €440 million.
The failure to deposit the guarantee letter to date comes at a particularly critical juncture. Avramar's other bidder, the Canadian Cooke Group, has sent a letter to the boards of Avramar, Perseus, and Andromeda, announcing its intention to request the convening of extraordinary general meetings and announcing a significant increase in share capital.
Cooke Inc., now in its capacity as a shareholder, openly challenges the creditor banks' plan to transfer their claims to Aqua Bridge Holding Ltd and is attempting to shift the balance at this critical stage of the restructuring.
The Canadians' proposal is said to exceed the €230 million offered by Aqua Bridge for the purchase of the loans from the banks, intensifying the competition for control of the group.
At the same time, in the same letter, Cooke calls on the management not to take any irreversible actions or commitments before its proposal is examined by the general meetings. In fact, it warns that if consolidation procedures are initiated without proper evaluation of its own proposal, it will exercise all available legal remedies before the competent courts, invoking Greek and European law.
Euro2day.gr has repeatedly asked Avramar's board of directors for comment, but has not yet received a response.