Eircom has today confirmed it has appointed Morgan Stanley to find a buyer for the heavily indebted telco.

It also said it had received a covenant waiver extension from lenders until the end of March as it continues talks to restructure its debts.

The current waiver for ERC Ireland Holdings Limited, Eircom’s parent entity, expire today, having been extended on December 15th.

The waiver was sought under a €3.65 billion senior facilities agreement, dating from 2006.

Eircom breached its covenants last summer and has been operating under a waiver for some months.

The telco's Singapore-based shareholder ST Telemedia withdrew its debt restructuring proposal and resigned its representatives from the various boards and committees of the group’s companies in December.

This followed a decision by first-lien lenders to the company, who are owed about €2.6 billion, to reject STT’s latest proposal to restructure Eircom’s €3.7 billion net debt.

"The directors of the company have authorised the initiation of a process to assess the interest of third party strategic and financial investors in a sale of the company," Eircom said in a statement this evening. "This process will be conducted as part of the wider balance sheet remediation process currently underway."

STT currently holds a 65 per cent stake in Eircom with the Esot owning 35 per cent. They took control of the business in January 2010 from former owners, Babcock & Brown.