ASTIM’s () - the Italian company which mainly designs, develops and operates public infrastructure and large scale civil engineering works – has been in the news ever since it announced a loss related to soured investments in Venezuela last November. As you can see on the above grapple, credit investors have been embarked on a rollercoaster ride during that period. That all might be about to come to an end. To address its problems, the company has been trying to get a capital injection from outside investors, including IHI Corporation. A deal was reached, but it was conditional on the sale of ASTIM’s stake in a flagship bridge project spanning Istanbul’s Bosphorus. But, amid recent political turmoil in Turkey – its risk premium was another 29bps wider at 536bps today and the Lira down another 4% -, ASTIM has not received any binding offer yet. That is most likely the reason why a call was held between the company and its lenders on August 28th. According to Italian newspapers, the latter asked ASTIM to file for a court led restructuring. That was enough for investors to throw in the towel. They pushed ASTIM’s 1-year risk premium up almost 15pts to 43.5pts upfront, assessing its survival probability over the next 12 months at roughly 1 in 3.
