Heartland considers bond sale

NZPA

Tuesday 9th August 2011 1 Comment

Heartland New Zealand is considering a retail bond sale.

The financial services firm said that if the proposed acquisition of PGG Wrightson Finance (PWF) proceeds Heartland will become responsible for $92 million of outstanding PWF bonds which mature in October 2011.

"Heartland has sufficient cash on hand to repay the maturing PWF bonds in full. However, given current demand for corporate bonds and the desire to retain the PWF deposit base, the board is considering a bond issue in the near future as part of a broader wholesale funding strategy," the company said.

Heartland has mandated Westpac and Bank of New Zealand regarding the potential retail bond issue.

PWF held three special meetings for bondholders, secured depositors and unsecured depositors today to vote on the proposed transfer of debt securities to Heartland.

The meetings were adjourned until August 15 as the required quorums were not present. An average 96.5 percent of those voting to date support the resolutions.

Comments from our readers

On 9 August 2011 at 8:38 am Arty said:

So on one hand, Heartland is giving 1m of shareholder funds to a staff share purchasing schemme, but on the other they are short of cash, seemingly. If this company wants to be a bank, it better start acting like one, tighten the ship up, start making a profit, then shareholders will give support. Until then Heartland just looks like another another finance house stumbling around looking for funding.