F&P Appliances gains extension on $80m facility

Tuesday 28th April 2009

Fisher & Paykel Appliances, the whiteware manufacturer whose shares have tumbled 67% this year, gained an extension on its $80 million interim banking facility.

The company’s banking syndicate agreed to extend the facility to May 29 on the same terms. The funding arrangement was to come due on April 30.

“The Company continues to work closely with its banking syndicate with a view to refinancing the total bank debt of the Appliances Group by that same date, subject to the Company and its banks being able to mutually agree terms,” managing director John Bongard said in a statement.

“The Company’s expectation is that the interim funding facility will be repaid from the proceeds of that refinancing,” he said.

Shares of F&P Appliances climbed 2.3% to 45 cents on the NZX. The facility is with a syndicate of six banks led by the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group and Bank of New Zealand.

The company is cutting costs in the face of a global downturn and as the falling New Zealand dollar swelled the value of overseas debt. It will eliminate about 50 jobs in New Zealand and Mexico in the next few months.

The manufacturer agreed to a 35-hour working week at its Auckland plant in a bid to save jobs last month, and was the first company to the government’s nine-day working fortnight scheme, gaining a state subsidy to make up the difference to a 40-hour working week.

Businesswire.co.nz

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