RPT-UPDATE 1-ResCap says gets enough consents for bond exchange

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NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) - Residential Capital LLC, the mortgage finance unit of GMAC (GMA.N), has received investor approval to change the terms of $14 billion of its bonds, the company said on Sunday.

The approval is a step toward restructuring $12.8 billion of the bonds and buying back another $1.2 billion, as the struggling mortgage lender works to win more time from investors to pay back its debt.

If ResCap can secure a new bank facility and meet other conditions, it will exchange bonds with a face value of $12.8 billion for new securities that mature later, but pay a higher interest rate and have assets securing the obligations.

Most of the investors will be paid back less than the face value of their bonds.

Some investors objected to the terms of the debt exchange, and were considering demanding better ones, according to a lawyer approached by noteholders.

But investors that did not agree to exchange their bonds for new ones were likely to either push ResCap into bankruptcy or end up with fewer assets securing their bonds.

In a statement, ResCap said it received the requisite consents for a bond exchange on all the $14 billion of its outstanding notes.

ResCap said earlier in May it started offers to exchange $12.8 billion outstanding notes for newly issued notes and had commenced a cash tender offer for all its outstanding $1.2 billion floating rate notes.

GMAC is 51 percent owned by a group led by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP [CBS.UL]. It bought that stake in 2006 from General Motors Corp (GM.N), which owns the remaining 49 percent.

ResCap is one of dozens of mortgage lenders to find itself in a tough spot amid the U.S. housing crisis. As the credit crunch broadens, more and more corporate bond issuers are looking to restructure their debt as well.

ResCap posted an $859 million first-quarter loss last month, bringing its total losses over six quarters to $5.3 billion. Exchanging its bonds is just one of a series of steps it needs to take to shore up its ailing balance sheet.

The company said earlier this month that even if it does restructure its bonds and bank loans, it will have to raise $600 million by the end of June to pay off obligations.

(Reporting by Dan Wilchins and Megan Davies; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)