Ineos lenders agree to covenant waiver extension

LONDON May 27 (Reuters) - Heavily indebted British chemicals company Ineos [INEOSP.UL] said late on Wednesday that lenders had approved its request for a covenant waiver extension, giving it more time to work out a restructuring plan.

Approval from at least two-thirds of lenders was needed to grant the extension.

"Ineos Group Holdings Plc confirms that its request for an extension to certain covenant waivers, to allow sufficient time for the sounding group and its advisors to consider the company's proposals, has been agreed," the company said in a statement.

Ineos was Britain's biggest private company by both sales and profit in 2008, according to The Sunday Times. The extension of the waiver until July means the company can continue with plans to restructure its 7.5 billion euro ($10.46 billion) debt load.

Ineos bonds have risen in the past few weeks on investor hope that the company would avoid a major restructuring in the short term.

Its euro bond maturing in 2016 GB024294536= stood at about 27 percent of face value on Wednesday compared to about 7 percent in late April.

At the start of the year, the chemicals sector was rocked by slumping demand for chemicals products and news that LyondellBasell [ACCEIN.UL], the world's third-largest petrochemicals company, had filed for Chapter 11. (Reporting by Natalie Harrison; Editing by Gary Hill)