Thursday 15 January 2009

Time out as banks mull sell-off

Summaries - Australian Financial Review
Tuesday 13/1/2009 Page: 38

A two week trading halt will be placed on Babcock and Brown (B&B) stocks as the company's bankers think about selling the company's assets, such as thermal, wind and solar developments, and winding up the business. If approved, the decision to sell assets will end chief executive officer Michael Larkin's plan to turn the finance house into a specialist infrastructure investment business and sell 'non-core assets' like rail and leases. Current management rather than a receiver appointed by the banks will supervise the asset sales.

B&B told the Australian Securities Exchange that it expects the trade suspension will be lifted once the company's lenders including Australia's four major banks - the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, the National Australia Bank and Westpac - make their final responses. The majority of last week's trade was done via CommSec and ETrade indicating retail investors were confident in taking a chance that the company would survive until the February decision on a debt-for-equity swap.

0 comments: