Veritas renegotiating bank facilities for 'more sound financial position'
Current liabilities "significantly in excess" of assets.
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Hawke’s Bay
Listed food and beverage investor Veritas Investments [NZX: VIL] says it intends to renegotiate its banking facilities with ANZ as its current liabilities are now “significantly in excess” of current assets.
The company today announced its results for the six months ended December 31 were as indicated to the market in January this year, when Veritas slashed profit forecasts and announced PwC had been called in to review its operations.
Veritas’ net loss for the half-year was $4,816,000, down 382%, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) at $3.1m – at the upper end of the company’s indication last month.
It says trading in second quarter was “disappointing and below budget.”
“The group as a whole experienced highly competitive market conditions during the first half of full-year 2016 with adverse weather conditions impacting on the second quarter results.”
Write-downs and impairments of about $5.3 million were included in the result, including $2.2 million related to the Mad Butcher chain.
The company’s financial statements say the group has $15.9 million of current borrowings, with non-current borrowings of $17.4 million and $2 million set to expire in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
But with current borrowings “now significantly in excess” of its current assets of $9.6 million, Veritas says it intends to renegotiate its various loans and facilities with its main banker, ANZ.
“It is expected that the outcome of this will be to place the group in a more sound financial position and will help ensure that it operates on a stronger and more profitable basis for the longer term.”
Veritas’ full-year ebitda guidance is between $8-9 million, with net profit after tax forecast to be between $3 million and $3.5 million.
Shares in Veritas were down 2.5c following the results announcement, to trade at 32c.
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Hamish McNicol
Wed, 24 Feb 2016
Wed, 24 Feb 2016
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Veritas renegotiating bank facilities for 'more sound financial position'
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