The irony meter is almost off the scale when it comes to mine site trucking company Bis Industries.
It is among the 14 members of the committee of creditors who will next week need to sign off on the buyout by Britain's Liberty House and SIMEC for the Arrium Australia assets.
But Bis has, of course, been through a world of pain itself and Street Talk can reveal the company is in the final stages of a long-awaited restructure of its balance sheet.
Sources told Street Talk the company's capital structure has been re-set and the economics of the deal carved up, just days after talks stretched past a June 30 deadline.
KKR-owned Bis Industries kicked off talks in August 2016, owing more than $900 million to its lenders.
It is understood that a deal built around a debt-for-equity swap will deliver Bis into the hands of its three largest senior lenders – Varde Partners, Metrics Credit Partners and The Carlyle Group – leaving KKR, which bought the business in 2007, retaining only a very small slice.
Think Slater & Gordon, but in an off-the-ASX transaction where the finer details will never see the light of day.
Street Talk understands one or more holders of certain tranches of the debt have had to defer or extend their rights for up to a month to allow the deal to take place and discussions to continue.
The deal leave well-regarded chief executive Brad Rogers able get on with business just as other mining services companies are reporting early signs of green shoots in the sector.
