The embattled small business lender gets a $1 billion credit line from a onetime foe as it tries to push through a restructuring plan.
(CNNMoney.com) Small business lender CIT Group got a hand Friday from a most unlikely source: a billionaire activist investor who has spent the past month trying to foil the company’s restructuring plans.
New York-based CIT (CIT, Fortune 500) said Friday it reached an agreement under which Carl Icahn will support the firm’s restructuring. Icahn’s hedge fund firm, Icahn Capital LP, will also provide CIT with a $1 billion credit line.
The credit line can be used as debtor-in-possession financing if CIT ends up filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — as the company has threatened to do should bondholders fail to support its restructuring plan.
CIT wants to restructure its debt to slash its borrowings by $5.7 billion. Bondholders who sign off on the plan would get a smaller amount of new bonds and equity in the revamped firm, without forcing CIT to go through the bankruptcy courts.


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