HEDLEY Leisure and Gaming Property Fund and National Leisure & Gaming are preparing to sell a combined $260 million worth of assets in order to meet their debt obligation.
HLG which resumed trading after clarifying a Special Crossing transaction is believed to have earmarked around $200 million worth of property for divestment.
Whilst NLG yesterday said it will be selling eight properties valued around $66 million the next two years.
HLG has about $805 million worth of debt and has a current gearing of 67%, the fund has already sold a pub for $17 million and is currently in due diligence to sell another pub for $8 million.
The first hotel sale is believed to be the
The next $150-$200 million worth of asset sales will reduce HLG’s gearing to 60%.
HLG has appointed ANZ Mergers & Acquisitions division and Minter Ellison to review the process.
Yesterday, HLG also cleared the latest mystery surrounding last week’s major sell off of 10.8 million shares at a discounted price of 47.5 cents compared to 85 cents it was trading on the marketplace.
HLG’s chairman Colin Henson said the Special Crossing was made by TWH (Qld) Pty Ltd, a company associated with HLG director Tom Hedley, had margin loans of $8 million in respect of 20,623, 312 HLG securities.
Tricom Securities was a provider the margin loan to TWH and had made a loan of approximately 10.8 million of those HLG securities to Opes Prime. The transfer price reflected the amount of a loan between them and not the market price of those securities.
The securities were transferred to an account for the benefit of Tricom and were held as collateral for funds advanced by Tricom to TWH.
Meanwhile, the Australian Stock Exchange has cancelled the Special Crossing.
Henson said prior to the Suspension of HLG’s securities, none of TWH or any director of HLG who has a margin loan has been subjected to any call on a loan which has resulted in any sale of HLG securities.
“At the request of ASX, HLG has been in contact with Tricom to confirm whether another crossing of the 10.8 million HLG securities would occur from Opes Prime to Tricom upon HLG being reinstated, and at what price that crossing would occur.
“HLG has been unable to secure answers to either of these two questions, and will update the market if and when that information is ascertained,” Henson concluded.
Meanwhile, NLG has downgraded its profit result for the next two years.
NLG has revised its projected FY08 EBITDA to $9.9 million down from $12.6 million as advised on February 05 and its projected FY09 EBITDA to $15.0 million from $29 million, forecast in November last year.
Managing director Andrew Jolliffe said the predominant reasons for the projected EBITDA revisions are the protraction in rolling out the capital works program to
He also said over the next two years the company will sell up to eight venues for approximately $66 million.
Jollife said the third reason is the projected increase cost of refinancing debt.
Yesterday, NLG said it is negotiating to renew its existing financing facilities with Bank of New Zealand Australia, which is set to expire on June 30.
Although not finalised, Jollife said NLG and BNZA have agreed to various amendments to the existing financing facilities, including changes to various covenants and amendments to various fees and interest rates payable by NLG under the facilities.
Finally an independent consultant has been appointed, reporting to both NLG and the BNZA, whose role will include reviewing and commenting on the financial and operational forecasts for the period January 01 2008 to June 30 2009.
HLG shares traded 16 cents higher to close at 95 cents and NLG’s shares remain unchanged at 3.5 cents.
Australian Property Journal
