NII Holdings files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Published September 15, 2014 by Veronica Garabelli

Reston-based NII Holdings has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company announced Monday. The Fortune 500 company said last month it would likely file for Chapter 11 relief .

NII said it and certain of its U.S. and Luxembourg-based subsidiaries had begun voluntary chapter 11 proceedings, the first step to restructuring its debt  and  to improve the company's liquidity.

“The Company has been in discussions with its major stakeholders over the last several months and is optimistic that those discussions will lead to a debt restructuring plan that will be reflected in a plan of reorganization that will be submitted in the proceedings in the near future,” NII said in a statement.

The company’s subsidiaries in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina are not part of the bankruptcy filings and will continue “business as usual,” NII said.

NII provides mobile communication services for businesses and consumers in Latin America through the Nextel brand.

Last month the company announced it had lost 77,000 subscribers in the second quarter,  bringing its subscriber base to 9.4 million, a roughly 6 percent decrease from the same quarter in 2013. The company’s operating revenues for the second quarter dropped by 23 percent to $969 million, compared to the same quarter in 2013. Its net loss from continuing operations during the most recent second quarter of this year was $629 million, or $3.65 per basic share.