$4.9M Repayment Will Be Made 5 Months Early
Media Release 2 May 2013
GENEVA FINANCE ANNOUNCES ITS 30 SEPTEMBER 2013 MORATORIUM REPAYMENT TO INVESTORS WILL BE PAID OUT ON 8 MAY, APPROXIMATELY FIVE MONTHS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
NZAX-listed auto loan provider GFNZ Group Ltd (Geneva)announced that the moratorium repayment of $4.9 million due on 30 September, will be paid on the 8th May, twenty two weeks ahead of schedule. This announcement maintains Geneva’s record of early repayment, following the early repayments of the September 2010, March 2011, September 2011, March 2012, September 12 and March 13 scheduled debenture principal repayments.
This repayment is being made under resolution 1.4(b) of the interest bearing repayment plan to repay moratorium debenture holders and BOSInternational (Australia) Limited early, either in full or in part on a pro rata basis.
Inclusive of this payment, Geneva Finance has repaid in excess of $144 million of investor principal and interest payments since the company entered moratorium in November 2007 owing a net $132.4 million to investors. These repayments are inclusive of interest payments to investors (including the company’s bankers) of $41.1 million, at a weighted average interest rate of 10.5%, and principal repayments to public debenture holders totaling $73.1 million.
This early repayment
follows on from a number of successful funding initiatives
including:
• The placement of $5.3million of new
business receivables ($3.3m in August 12 and $2.0m in
January 13) into “Prime Asset Trust Limited”a scheme,
that utilised this security to raise a total of $4.6m
million of new funding.
• The raising of $2.8m of new
equity in two tranches with the first being February 2012
and the second in November 2012.
• New debenture
funding raised under the current prospectus
• The sale
and lease back, of the Group’s Mt Wellington Head Office
building in April of this year.
Funding from these sources has been supplemented with positive operating cash flows and it is the combined impact of these initiatives that has put the business in a position to maintain its track record of paying investors ahead of schedule.
Geneva Managing Director David O’Connell says, “We are operating in a difficult financial environment and as such it is pleasing to be in a position to continue to repay investors ahead of schedule. Going forward however, it is essential that we maintain our focus on the key challenges ahead of us as we seek to both maintain our debt repayment program and create opportunities to enhance shareholder value.”
Overview
The re emergence of Geneva from
Moratorium in November 2007, has been built around the
achievement of a series of milestones, with each being
achieved before progressing to the next objective. These
milestones fall into four stages:
1. Firstly, from
November 2007 through to January 2012, the focus was on
repositioning the business model to a lower risk market
segment, cost reduction, improving distribution systems for
the company’s products, broaden the scope of the business
with the acquisition of an insurance operation and a debt
collection business to supplement the core lending
activities and most importantly the repayment of investor
debt.
2. Secondly, From January 12 the focus moved to
improving the company’s equity position and as at the end
of November 2012, Geneva had raised new equity of $2.8m, and
secured a cornerstone shareholder, Federal Pacific Group
Limited who now hold a 36% stake in the
company.
3. Thirdly, The sale of non core assets, in particular our property assets to allow the company to focus its resources on sustaining and expanding the new business model receivables.
4. Fourthly building on the above, we are now looking to expand the core business to create shareholder value. Core to this challenge, is attracting new funding at affordable rates. With this in mind on the 11th February 2013, Geneva announced it would supplement the funding initiates referred to above with the issue of a prospectus.
ends
About
Geneva
Geneva is a New Zealand-owned finance
company that provides finance and financial services to the
consumer credit and small to medium business markets. Geneva
commenced business on 7 October 2002. Geneva's loans are
originated through three distribution channels (Direct,
Broker and Dealer), processed by the central sales desk then
administered through a national operations centre located at
Mt Wellington, Auckland.
The company borrows money by the
issue of debenture stock. It also has a banking facility
with BOS International (Australia) Limited.
Geneva (GFL)
is listed on the NZAX. There are 280,872,249 issued shares
held by 2,617 investors.
About Federal Pacific
FedPac’s operations throughout the Pacific region include investments in Banking, Personal and Business Finance, Money Transfer and Foreign Exchange Trading. The company was incorporated in 1993 and is based in Auckland, New Zealand.