PADOVA, Italy—Executives at Safilo Group S.p.A report the company has been actively pursuing discussions with its bank creditors and its main shareholder, Hal Holding, to arrange a refinancing package of what could be €300 million by the end of November, which is when its €150 million revolving credit facility is set to expire. During a financial call on Aug. 3rd to discuss the company’s first half results which were reported the day prior, indicating a sales decline and higher debt, as reported, Gerg Graehsler, the company’s CFO said, “We’re are evaluating all options, on the debt side, equity side, with an aim to find the right solution of combination of solutions.”

In first half 2018 ending June, Safilo Group reported its free cash flow was negative at €37.3 million compared to a negative flow of €57.2 million the comparable period of 2017.

At the end of June 2018, the group’s net debt stood at €171.1 million, compared to €166.0 million at the end of March 2018 and to €112.7 million at the end of June 2017.

Safilo had reported in June of this year that, in the context of its ongoing refinancing process, it requested and obtained from its lenders an extension of the expiry date of its Revolving Credit Facility amounting to €150 million, from July 29, 2018 to November 30, 2018.

The June 2018 LTM financial leverage, calculated taking into account also the reported first half EBITDA adjusted for the non-recurring costs incurred in the year and for the extraordinary items ascribed to the implementation of the new order-to-cash IT system in the Padua DC, the company said. As a consequence of these results, Safilo has exceeded the level of leverage set in the covenant of its revolving credit facility, expiring at the end of November 2018. This now triggers a remediation period, with a new test at end of September, to be concluded within November.