* Paves way for takeover by Blackfish Capital
* Savers likely to get access to funds in July
(Adds Belgian government loan to Luxembourg)
BRUSSELS, June 5 (Reuters) - Creditors of the Luxembourg arm of crisis-hit Icelandic bank Kaupthing have approved a restructuring plan put forward by UK investment fund Blackfish Capital, an administrator for the bank said on Friday.
The approval paves the way for Blackfish Capital to take over Kaupthing Luxembourg, ending more than half a year of uncertainty for the bank’s savers.
Kaupthing’s Luxembourg banking activities will be transferred to a new bank named Banque Havilland S.A., which will receive at least 208 million euros ($294.7 million) in cash.
The group’s lending activities as well as certain securities and 260 million euros in cash will go to a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) Pillar Securitisation.
A group of Middle Eastern investors had wanted to buy Kaupthing Bank Luxembourg, but Kaupthing’s bank creditors rejected their restructuring plan submitted in March.
“The cash offer for the SPV was much lower in the Arab investors’ bid,” administrator Franz Fayot said.
He added he expected Belgian savers would be able to access their accounts in early July.
The Belgian government approved a 160 million euro loan to Luxembourg on Friday, Belgium’s finance ministry said.
Luxemburg will use the loan and 160 million euros of its own money to facilitate the takeover.
Fayot said the administrators would ask a Luxembourg court to extend the suspension of payments by another month to enable the group to implement the changes.
Luxembourg’s financial regulator froze Kaupthing Luxembourg accounts in November after Iceland took control of its parent company.
Some 16,000 Belgian on-line savers at Kaupthing Bank Luxembourg have not been able to access their money since then.
“They will access their money at the end of the further extension we will apply for in court this afternoon,” Fayot said.
Kaupthing was the last of Iceland’s top three banks taken over as the North Atlantic island’s financial system crumbled under the weight of tens of billions of dollars of foreign debt.
(Reporting by Antonia van de Velde; Editing by Erica Billingham)
$1=.7058 Euro
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