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LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - French cable television operator Numericable has extended the final deadline for its loan covenant reset and debt buyback proposal by almost two weeks until Nov. 13, bankers said on Tuesday.
Numericable, which had to improve the terms of its offer at the beginning of October after meeting initial pushback from its lenders, also extended an 'early bird' deadline in late October.
Lending groups are adopting a tougher line as more borrowers ask for greater flexibility to meet covenants on their debt. UK Yellow Pages publisher Yell secured approval for a comprehensive refinancing from 95 percent of its lenders after extending the deadline three times.
Numericable, which recently announced it would not apply for France's fourth mobile phone licence, requires approval from two thirds of its bank syndicate for the loan amendment.
Nobody at Numericable was immediately available for comment.
Numericable's amendment pays an upfront fee of 50 basis points -- split between a 25 bps early bird fee and a 25 bps consent fee. Margins on Numericable's 3.225 billion euro leveraged loan will be increased by 75 bps - split 25 bps cash pay and 50 bps payment-in-kind - across the financing.
Numericable's private equity owners -- Cinven, Carlyle Group and Altice - will also delever the company by injecting 50 million euros cash into the company and negating existing sponsor-held debt.
The company asked banks to give it more headroom on its leverage and interest cover covenants in early September, starting at 10 percent and rising to 20 percent, a source said at the time.
(Reporting by Zaida Espana; Editing by David Cowell) Keywords: NUMERICABLE/LOAN

(zaida.espana@reuters.com; +44-20-7542-7996; Reuters Messaging zaida.espana@reuters.com@reuters.net)

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