Allied Farmers Ltd said it has yet to reach and agreement with its bank to extend bank facilities which expire on July 1.Its principal banker is Westpac New Zealand Ltd. Allied Farmers said negotiations with Westpac and one other lender proposing to offer
Allied Farmers Ltd said it has yet to reach and agreement with its bank to extend bank facilities which expire on July 1.
Its principal banker is Westpac New Zealand Ltd. Allied Farmers said negotiations with Westpac and one other lender proposing to offer funding under a shared security arrangement are continuing.
In December, the company concluded and settled the acquisition of the Hanover Finance and United Finance assets and it has since written their value down drastically.
On June 10 Allied Farmers advised that it was negotiating its banking facilities for the new financial year. As of today the amount outstanding under its Westpac loan facility is $16.5 million, which is down from $21m a year ago. The loan facility, and an overdraft facility of $2.5m, expire on July 1.
These facilities are secured by a general security agreement over the assets of an Allied Farmers' charging group. The charging group includes the parent company, Allied Farmers Ltd, its wholly owned subsidiaries holding the assets of Allied Farmers' rural business, and the assets acquired from Hanover Finance and United Finance. It does not include the assets of Allied Nationwide Finance Ltd, a finance company.
"The Allied Farmers business has a number of moving pieces at the moment with asset sales, settlements, banking and financing arrangements," chairman John Loughlin said.
"The board and management have been working very hard to finalise a number of issues and are conscious that the date for completion of financing negotiations is not far away.
"In that context we feel it is important that the market be informed of the current position,"Mr Loughlin said.
