Creditors of Ssangyong Engineering & Construction Co. agreed Monday to initiate a debt-restructuring program for the troubled builder to rescue the company from a cash crunch, bank officials said.

Creditor banks of Ssangyong E&C, including Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank, put the matter to a vote at a meeting, with those holding credit worth 95 percent of the total debt agreeing to the plan, according to the officials.

According to local law, a corporate workout program must be approved by creditor banks whose combined holdings exceed 75 percent or more of the credit.

Creditor banks have agreed to delay credit retrievals for the next three months as part of efforts to salvage the nation’s 13th-largest builder from the brink of bankruptcy.

They will soon be holding a due diligence on the company to determine ways to help the company resolve its liquidity crunch, the officials said.

Ssangyong E&C filed for the program on Tuesday after suffering massive losses for the second straight year in 2012 amid the global economic downturn and faltering local property market.

The builder is the former construction arm of the now-defunct Ssangyong Group. (Yonhap News)