The 'debt' hasn't been written off, as such. It has been converted into an equity share of the 'new' MyTravel Holdings. The reason that the banks have agreed to do this, is that they will now hold a much higher percentage of the new company than they would have otherwise. That is the reason that the current bond holders were kicking up such a fuss, as originally the bond holders were only offered 2% of the new company. The share offered to them has now been increased to 8%, which is why the court ruling was not actually needed on the 20th of December.