FCOT gets $70m F&N loan to repay debt
Posted by luxuryasiahome on November 22, 2008
FRASERS Commercial Trust (FCOT) has taken a $70 million loan from parent company Fraser and Neave (F&N) to repay debt.
The money has been used to repay $70 million of loan notes issued to Australia’s Commonwealth Bank, FCOT said yesterday.
F&N made the loan to FCOT on normal commercial terms. It is for an initial six months, with an interest rate of 3.73 per cent per year.
FCOT also said that its manager is in discussions to refinance the $70 million loan and all debt maturing in 2009 and will update the market at the appropriate time.
At least one credit agency previously expressed concern over the $70 million debt due to Commonwealth Bank on Nov 22. On Oct 21, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Services changed its CreditWatch status on BB-rated FCOT from positive to developing. ‘FCOT has yet to finalise its refinancing plans to the level of certainty we expected,’ S&P credit analyst Wee Khim Loy said then.
Other than the $70 million loan, FCOT also owns Commonwealth Bank a further $400 million and $150 million, due in July and December 2009 respectively, S&P said.
In its Q3 earnings statement, the company said that it has $473.1 million of debt repayable in one year or less. A further $429.5 million of debt is repayable after one year.
FCOT was formed in July this year after property group Frasers Centrepoint bought 17.7 per cent of Allco Commercial Reit and 100 per cent of the trust’s manager for $180 million in all. Frasers Centrepoint, a subsidiary of F&N, had planned to list a commercial Reit. With the deal, Frasers Centrepoint scraped the listing plan and renamed Allco Reit as FCOT.
FCOT shares closed unchanged at 21 cents yesterday.
Source : Business Times – 22 Nov 2008
