South Africa's Edcon defers $110 mln coupon payment

JOHANNESBURG, April 15 (Reuters) - South African retailer Edcon has received support from its lenders to defer 1.6 billion rand ($110 million) of interest payments to December to boost its liquidity, it said on Friday.

Taken private in a highly leveraged buyout by Bain Capital in 2007, the country's biggest clothing retailer said close to 80 percent of holders of a 2018 bond denominated in dollars and euros supported the plan.

Edcon required the backing of at least 75 percent of the holders of 617 million euros and $250 million of bonds, which carry a 9.5 percent coupon, to extend the suspension to all holders.

"The cash-pay interest deferral will enhance the liquidity position of the group," Edcon said in a statement. The coupon payment was due this month.

The retailer has been grappling with high debts for several years, after problems in its credit business in 2014 coincided with an economic slowdown and weak consumer spending in South Africa.

A 425 million euro bond - originally pitched in late 2013 as a bridge to an initial public offering - was written down last year in a distressed exchange offer that reduced the company's debt pile by 4.5 billion rand and its interest payments by 1 billion rand.

But the weaker rand currency, which has tumbled by 40 percent against the dollar since late 2014, has strained Edcon's ability to pay down its debt denominated in euros and dollars.

($1 = 14.5376 rand)

($1 = 0.8883 euros)