Surveying the Allco rumour mill

The half year financials of Allco Finance Group now won't be published today but rather on Monday. The delay presumably is to give the structured finance group's principals, financiers and advisers time to negotiate terms on the sale of some (but probably not all) of the business, to sell some assets, to refinance some debts, or just to buy time to negotiate some or all of these options over time.

In a series of articles today the Financial Review reports on what may be the highlights of the busy negotiations over the positioning and prospects of Allco. The reading material in today's Financial Review includes a feature, a news report and the market gossip column.

The highlights of these reports include:

- there are "up to 10 parties" seeking to buy "all or part" of the company. Three named are Macquarie Bank (said to interested mainly in the aircraft leasing business, and holding out for better terms), Texas Pacific Group (possibly through a fund partly backed by the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation) and also Babcock & Brown.

- that Allco is seeking to "offload financing and debt commitments" in connection with the planned purchase of a portfolio of energy generating assets in North America from ConEdison for US$1.5 billion. Allco agreed to buy a 38 per cent stake in these assets. Industry Funds Management is the buyer of the majority stake (and there are no rumours this newsletter's heard about IFM's ability to complete).

- that Commonwealth Bank hired accounting firm Ferrier Hodgson to investigate Allco's financial records and to advise banks on their options.

- KordaMentha is advising the board of AFG.

Other reports over the past week state that Allco is seeking to sell its 50 per cent stake in the World Square complex in Sydney.

The inability of Allco to raise the funds for a planned infrastructure fund, Allco GTI (announced last week) appears to have cut off one long-planned option to sell AFG assets to a related vehicle and thus meet new commitments (including the purchase of the US energy assets and assist in the repayment or refinancing of term debt due in May 2008).

Allco's lenders are bound to let management manage these and an array of related negotiations, and premonitions of the demise of Allco at this stage seem hasty.