Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Puerto Rico wireless provider files for bankruptcy with plan to sell assets

Saturday, December 2, 2006

by: Dawn McCarty

WILMINGTON, USA (Bloomberg): NewComm Wireless Services Inc., a closely held provider of cellular-phone services in Puerto Rico, has filed for bankruptcy protection with a plan to sell its assets to PRWireless Inc. for about $103.2 million.

NewComm said in court documents that it lost subscribers because it couldn't finance network upgrades. The company, a joint venture of ClearComm LP and Telefonica Larga Distancia de Puerto Rico Inc., plans to try to make the improvements early next year if the sale isn't completed.

"The scheduled upgrade is fundamental to the preservation of NewComm's enterprise value," the company said in documents filed November 28 in US Bankruptcy Court in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

NewComm listed assets and debts of more than $100 million its Chapter 11 filing. The 20 largest unsecured creditors are owed $115 million. Secured creditors are owed more than $63 million, according to court documents.

The largest unsecured creditors are ABN Amro Bank NV, owed $94.5 million for unsecured notes, and Telefonica Larga, owed $13.3 million, and Puerto Rico Telephone Co., owed $1.6 million, both for trade debt. The Federal Communications Commission is owed $7.8 million for wireless licenses.

The company said it hired Jefferies & Co. and Ironbark Associates LLC to help find new financing.

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