Pacific Brands, whose clothing and footwear brands include Holeproof socks, Bonds underwear and Hush Puppies, won agreement from its lenders to push out its debt maturity for another two years.
The company was granted an extension to repay the A$144.5 million first tranche by January 1, 2011 by all of its existing lenders, it said in a statement to the exchange.
Its second tranche of debt has been extended to match its third tranche, which mature March 28, 2012.
As at December 31, the company had drawn A$810.8 million of the total A$904.5 million facility.
“The revised deal has been fully supported by our existing banking group,” said chief executive Sue Morphet, in a statement. “We welcome their further support and confidence in the company and the implementation of our Pacific Brands 2010 strategy.”
Pacific Brands has slashed almost 2,000 jobs across New Zealand and Australia as it seeks to cut costs by winding up its trans-Tasman operations and shifting manufacturing to China.
The redundancies caused anger in Australia after executives received pay increases of up to 170%, including a A$1.1 million rise for Morphet. The company also came under pressure from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd when it became known the apparel maker received A$15 million in subsidies over the past two years.
The manufacturer posted a A$150 million first-half net loss on February 25, following a A$57 million profit in the same period for the previous year. Shares in the apparel maker, which trade infrequently, last traded at 40 NZ cents on April 6 on the NZX.
The main ASX-listed stock was at 44 cents yesterday and has soared 113% in the past month.
Businesswire.co.nz
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