MADRID, June 17 (Reuters) - Spain's La Seda de Barcelona,LSB, which makes plastic bottles in Europe, Turkey andNorth Africa, said on Monday it would begin insolvencyproceedings after failing to reach a deal with creditors.
A record 2,500 Spanish companies squeezed by a deeprecession filed for insolvency in the first three months of thisyear, hurting lenders as they take ever bigger provisionsagainst losses on loans, eating into profits.
Catalonia-based LSB said it has been in talks with itslenders since September last year after its business ran intotrouble because of high raw materials costs and excess supply ofthe PET plastic containers that it makes.
LSB's shares rose 7 percent on Monday to 0.744 euros pershare, recouping losses made on Friday. LSB's insolvency filinggives it another chance to negotiate with creditors, while aprevious refinancing plan which fell through would have wipedout a large part of shareholders' equity.
La Seda had a debt load of just 600 million euros ($800million) at the end of 2012, including debt to providers,according to company filings.
U.S. hedge fund Anchorage is La Seda's single biggestcreditor, after it bought 37 percent of the company's syndicatedloans on the secondary market, a source familiar with therestructuring talks said.
The group has 462 million euros in syndicated loans frombanks, according to Reuters loan market news and analysisservice RLPC.
Of that, a 235 million euro portion needed to berestructured, the source close to the talks said.
Portuguese banks Caixa Geral and BCP are also biglenders, while HSBC and Spain's nationalised CatalunyaBanc also feature among prominent creditors.
RLPC reported in late May that La Seda would face insolvencyif creditors failed to back a restructuring plan put forward byAnchorage, which offered to inject 30 million euros in thebusiness in exchange for 82 percent of its equity.
La Seda de Barcelona said in a statement that a refinancingplan had failed to get the backing it needed from 75 percent ofcreditors.