Telewest director quits over restructuring

One of Telewest's non-executive directors, Stanislas Yassukovich, has quit the board of the cable operator in protest at the details of a debt-for-equity restructuring that will hand control of the company to bondholders in return for cutting Telewest's debt load.

In his resignation letter, Yassukovich said:

"As the formalities for completion of the restructuring arrangements must now be undertaken, it is appropriate that I now resign from the Board. As you know, I never accepted the decision of the ad hoc Committee of Bondholders to renegotiate the terms of the re-structuring as originally agreed, albeit on a non binding basis. As I consider the revision of the terms to be prejudicial to the interests of all the stakeholders, I could not join in what you would correctly wish to be a unanimous recommendation to shareholders."

Telewest's chairman, Cob Stenham, said in his reply:

"I and the rest of the Telewest Board understand and respect your opinion. In the circumstances faced by the Telewest group, however, we have concluded that a restructuring on the revised terms remains in the best interests of our stakeholders.

"All the directors express their sincere thanks for your enormous contribution to the group since joining the Telewest Board in 2000 and prior to that as a director of Flextech since 1989."