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Miner hopeful of funds

OZ Minerals Ltd, seeking to refinance debt and bridging loans to meet cash shortfalls at three of its projects, yesterday said lenders were ''very positive'' to its needs.

There's no guarantee negotiations would succeed because the company's transactions with its lenders are complicated, Andrew Michelmore, chief executive officer of the world's second-largest zinc mining company, said on Sky News Business Channel.

''I'm confident we're making huge progress,'' Michelmore said. ''You can never say guaranteed because we are dealing with different syndicates. One bank can hold the whole thing up.''

OZ Minerals said last Tuesday that it won a two-month extension to refinance debt after burning through A$1 billion (US$700 million) in cash in six months. The Melbourne-based firm's market value slumped 79 percent to A$1.7 billion in the second half of 2008 as metal prices plunged more than 50 percent, Bloomberg News said.

''Some of those banks want their cash back out and don't want to go into the refinancing,'' Michelmore said. ''Other parts of the banks want to go into refinancing.''

The company has a loan of US$420 million provided by seven lenders, including Bank of Scotland Plc, a unit of HBOS Plc; Australia & New Zealand Bank Group Ltd; Commonwealth Bank of Australia; BNP Paribas; and Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank AG, OZ Minerals said on December 4.

A second US$140 million loan from ANZ and RBC was to be refinanced by December 29, while a third loan with Societe Generale has a limit of A$250 million, it said.


 

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