Drilling services company Boart Longyear Ltd
(ASX:BLY) says it has reached an agreement with a syndicate of banks to refinance and extend the company’s existing credit facilities at a lower level.
These facilities currently total $850 million U.S.
Boart says due to certain conditions that need to be met, the company is unable to give any assurances as to when or if a refinancing and extension will be consummated.
The financial institutions that make up the banking syndicate include Bank of America, N.A, National Australia Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP PARIBAS, HSBC Bank Australia, the Commonwealth Bank and ANZ.
Boart says its goal is to complete the refinancing or extension before the end of 2009. Boart Longyear’s 2008 net profit was US$156.7 million.
Packaging company Amcor Ltd (ASX:AMC) says discussions with Rio Tinto regarding the potential acquisition of part of the Alcan Packaging businesses owned by Rio, are incomplete.
Amcor says the discussions remain incomplete and there can be no assurance that any binding proposal or transaction will result from these discussions.
The company says it believes that the market has been speculating that Amcor is considering an equity raising to partially fund the possible acquisition of part, but not all, of the Alcan businesses.
Amcor says speculation has increased with the announcement by Rio on July 6 that it had sold the Alcan Packaging Food Americas business to Bemis Company.
Amcor says an announcement will be made if and when any complete and binding proposal may be agreed. Amcor’s 2008 net profit was nearly half that of its 2007 result.
Healthcare services company Healthscope Ltd (ASX:HSP) says it will write-down $13.8 million in fiscal 2009 after losing a court appeal over break fees related to the company’s failed acquisition of the diagnostic businesses of Symbion Health in 2007.
Healthscope had claimed a $19.575 million break fee payable following its unsuccessful acquisition of the assets of Symbion Health, now a subsidiary of Primary Health Care, in 2007.
The NSW court of appeal upheld the judges earlier decision to dismiss Healthscope’s appeal.
Healthscope says as a consequence of the Court of Appeal decision, this balance sheet item will be written off as a non-recurring item in the results for the year ending June 30 2009. Looking at the past five years Healthscope’s best net profit was in 2007.
