Elderslie Finance Corp was unlikely to be able to meet repayments of $38 million due to investors over the next three months and the company had a "significant cash flow deficit" of $16.7 million, lawyers for Perpetual, as trustee for debenture investors, told the Federal Court yesterday (or so
The Australian reported).
One interest payment that Elderslie is likely to miss is a payment on $80 million in asset-backed bonds sold in 2006. If this transpires it might mean that Elderslie achieves the distinction of being the first sponsor of a securitisation transaction in Australia to miss a payment (at least on rated securities).
The Federal Court is considering whether to allow Perpetual to appoint receivers to Elderslie (as the trustee wants) or whether to allow management and investors to complete a financial rescue, as some directors (and former directors) propose.
The court has suppressed reporting of the identity of those proposing to invest in the finance company.
The Australian reported that lawyers for Elderslie said that the latest rescue proposal would see the investor or investors inject $15 million into Elderslie in the short term and "between $50 million and $90 million in the medium term".
However, investors' funds would be frozen for six months on top of the temporary freeze agreed by the court two weeks ago.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that of the $15 million, $12.6 million would be used to pay creditors other than the debenture holders.
Perpetual said last month that it acted to seek appointment of a receiver because Elderslie's prospectus of February 2008 did not comply with all benchmarks laid down by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission last year under their "if not, why not" regime for disclosure by finance companies raising funds from the retail market.
The trustee said then the PricewaterhouseCoopers report "suggested it was likely EFC was or would become insolvent unless the company was sold and received a significant cash injection to meet its short-term liquidity requirements."