Mobile operator Cell C plans to restructure its debt, asking holders of its bonds for permission to extend repayment of money it’s meant to pay back to them next year by a further three years.

Reuters reported on Friday that the mobile operator, South Africa’s third biggest after Vodacom and MTN, plans to restructure €77,4m worth of senior debt in a move it says could help the company improve its cash management.

Cell C, which is owned by Saudi Oger, is engaged in a protracted price war with its bigger rivals. This week, it cut the price of its promotional prepaid plan, introduced in April, from 66c/minute to just 50c/minute.

The latest cut comes in the same week that MTN announced a new product plan called Pulse, aimed at the youth market, that offers MTN customers on the same plan calls for just 29c/minute.

Cell C said it intended asking its bond holders for permission to extend by three years the maturity of senior secured notes due in July 2015, Reuters reported.

The operator reportedly said that it would buy back any notes for their principal amount from bond holders wanting to cash out and not interested in extending their debt. — (c) 2014 NewsCentral Media