Press Release

GZO AG: Creditor group achieves support for all proposals at GZO bondholder meeting

Wetzikon, 9 December 2024 - On 6 December 2024 the creditor group led by Clearway Capital (“Clearway”) was notified that additional votes in support of its proposals relating to the extension of the maturity of GZO AG’s defaulted GZO AG (“GZO” or “the Company”) 1.875% June 2024 bonds (ISIN CH0240109618) were filed with the Company. Clearway is in the process of notifying the Hinwil court that the proposal was accepted by over two-thirds of bondholders and is now legally binding on the bondholders.

At a meeting of bondholders held on October 25th, bondholders overwhelmingly voted in favor of the proposals of the creditor group, however the required threshold to make the proposals legally binding was missed by 770000 votes, equivalent to less than 0.5% of the bond’s nominal value.

In accordance with Article 1172 paragraph 2 of the Swiss Code of Obligations, bondholders who held bonds on the date of the bondholder meeting which took place on 25 October and did not attend the meeting may vote for a period of two months after the meeting. Sufficient additional votes in favor of the proposal have now been filed with the Company to meet the required threshold of two thirds.

For the avoidance of doubt, GZO is under no obligation to accept the bondholders’ proposal, however now that there is formally an alternative to the composition moratorium available to the Company, any actions that GZO and its board may take to avoid exiting the moratorium, including possible write-downs, will be carefully scrutinized and may open the board up to personal liability.

“The actions of GZO’s board are incredibly damaging for Swiss capital markets and they set a dangerous precedent. The majority of GZO’s bondholders are pension funds and other similar institutions who purchased bonds under the correct assumption that they were backed by valuable assets. GZO’s board is now attempting to utilize a strategy of legal trickery to expropriate the thousands of pensioners and savers from value that is rightfully theirs. We will not allow this to happen.” said Gianluca Ferrari, CEO of Clearway Capital.

The creditor group thanks bondholders for their overwhelming support and welcomes the many comments from concerned creditors who have reached out expressing their disagreement with GZO’s proposed restructuring plan.

For inquiries:
GZO Creditor Group
c/o Dynamics Group, Andreas Durisch
079 358 87 32