Axsesstoday in administration
Small business lender Axsesstoday has gone into voluntary administration after senior lenders told the company they were not prepared to support it with ongoing waivers of breaches of loan terms.The company announced yesterday that it had appointed Deloitte Financial Advisory partners Vaughan Strawbridge, Glen Kanevsky and Sal Algeri as joint and several administrators.It said in a statement to the ASX that the appointment would not impact operations. It will continue to trade on a business as usual basis while the administrators pursue sale and recapitalisation options.The company's stock has been in voluntary suspension since September last year.A meeting of creditors has been called for April 17.The company got into trouble when it mis-managed a capital expansion last year. In May, it set up a securitisation warehouse facility with A$200 million in senior bank funding provided by Macquarie and a total capacity of $285 million.In June, it launched a simple corporate bond offer, raising $55 million, with the proceeds to be used to support loan growth and repay existing borrowings.In August, it reported strong financial results, with EBITDA growth of 130 per cent to $26.3 million and net profit growth of 94 per cent to $7 million. The loan book increased by 100 per cent during the 2017/18 financial year and stood at $336 million at June 30.But then the problems emerged. In November the company disclosed that it had breached covenants under its syndicated facility, subordinated note and Series 2 note agreements.The company has said these failures occurred because strong business growth put pressure on its capital structure. It also had problems with higher than expected arears levels.The chief executive Peter Ferizis was terminated in November, and in February the chief financial officer Joe Flanagan was terminated by incoming chief executive Joanna White.Legal counsel was brought in in the New Year to provide guidance on the company's ongoing compliance with its funding agreements. While all this is being sorted out business activity has been scaled back.Last week the company announced that it had appointed Moelis Australia to undertake a strategic review. The administrators said yesterday they were working with Moelis "to ensure a positive outcome."