Oz Minerals struggles to roll over debt - paper
Sun Dec 28, 2008 5:51pm EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSSYD40977820081228
SYDNEY, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Oz Minerals (OZL.AX), the world's second-largest zinc miner, faces a battle to convince one of its lenders, HBOS (HBOS.L), to give it more time to refinance $560 million in bank debt, The Australian newspaper said on Monday.
OZ Minerals, formed in July by the merger of miners Oxiana Ltd and Zinifex Ltd, is due later on Monday to refinance the debt which comprises a $140 million loan and a syndicated credit line of which $420 million has been drawn.
"HBOS are playing really hardball on this," the Australian newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying.
Basis Point, a Thomson Reuters news service, has reported that lenders Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ.AX), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA.AX), BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA), nabCapital (NAB.AX), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AX) have already agreed to a refinancing.
But HBOS is reluctant to give Oz Minerals more time, the Australian said, adding that its refusal to give the miner another lifeline could trigger a forced sale of assets.
Oz Minerals has operations across Australia, including the Century, Golden Grove and Rosebury zinc mines, its suspended Avebury nickel mine and its Prominent Hill copper-silver-gold deposit. It also owns the Sepon copper and gold mine in Laos.
The company's shares, suspended since late November, have lost 84 percent of their value this year as the prices of its main metals -- zinc, nickel and copper -- have tumbled.
Nickel on the London Metal Exchange MNI3 is down 63 percent this year, while zinc MZN3 has halved. (Reporting by Mark Bendeich; editing by Jonathan Standing) ($1=1.457 Australian Dollar)
Sun Dec 28, 2008 5:51pm EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSSYD40977820081228
SYDNEY, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Oz Minerals (OZL.AX), the world's second-largest zinc miner, faces a battle to convince one of its lenders, HBOS (HBOS.L), to give it more time to refinance $560 million in bank debt, The Australian newspaper said on Monday.
OZ Minerals, formed in July by the merger of miners Oxiana Ltd and Zinifex Ltd, is due later on Monday to refinance the debt which comprises a $140 million loan and a syndicated credit line of which $420 million has been drawn.
"HBOS are playing really hardball on this," the Australian newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying.
Basis Point, a Thomson Reuters news service, has reported that lenders Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ.AX), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA.AX), BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA), nabCapital (NAB.AX), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AX) have already agreed to a refinancing.
But HBOS is reluctant to give Oz Minerals more time, the Australian said, adding that its refusal to give the miner another lifeline could trigger a forced sale of assets.
Oz Minerals has operations across Australia, including the Century, Golden Grove and Rosebury zinc mines, its suspended Avebury nickel mine and its Prominent Hill copper-silver-gold deposit. It also owns the Sepon copper and gold mine in Laos.
The company's shares, suspended since late November, have lost 84 percent of their value this year as the prices of its main metals -- zinc, nickel and copper -- have tumbled.
Nickel on the London Metal Exchange MNI3 is down 63 percent this year, while zinc MZN3 has halved. (Reporting by Mark Bendeich; editing by Jonathan Standing) ($1=1.457 Australian Dollar)