Deferred repayment plan for Geneva approved

Geneva Finance investors are reported to have approved the company's deferred repayment plan that is a prerequisite to securing an extension of a funding facility from Bank of Scotland International.

Geneva Finance was the first finance company in New Zealand to enter a moratorium in November 2007, initially for six months, but which was extended in April 2008 when its investors accepted a capital reconstruction proposal. The company has continued to pay interest on investment while on moratorium.

In late 2009 BOSI confirmed that it would require full repayment of a NZ$35 million revolving facility whose term was previously amended to be due in April 2011. Since Geneva knew it would not be able to refinance the BOSI facility, it negotiated a repayment plan with BOSI that will extend the facility until March 2015, with scheduled periodic reductions in the facility limit every six months.

As a condition of the revised terms, BOSI required that the remaining principal repayments for restructured debentures and sub-notes were also extended beyond the repayment timeframe. This was achieved yesterday with 99 per cent of debenture holders and 100 per cent of note holders voting in favour of the capital restructuring.

The approval of the restructuring plan is likely to trigger a rating downgrade from Standard & Poor's to SD from the current CC rating.