Toll NZ gets complicated debt monkey off its back

Toll NZ has finally got its banks and bondholders as well as the investor who held a lease over the Aratere interisland ferry off its back.

A $300 million debt facility from its parent Toll Holdings is now the company's only source of funding.

The facility, confirmed yesterday, costs 2 per cent above the 90-day bank bill rate. It has no setup fee and lasts for two years.

It will be used to pay out $100 million of unsecured notes maturing this month, which were twice the cost of the new debt facility. It also refinances $268 million of Toll debt.

That provided $77 million to get out of a lease on the Aratere ferry, $50 million to pay back the $44 million the Government put in last year to prop the company up, $55 million to pay off bank loans and provide working capital and $18 million to replace Tranz Scenic's debt facilities.

Toll chief financial officer Neil Chatfield did not criticise the previous management who put the old arrangements in place, except to say that it was complex. The new facility was simple and flexible.

The stock exchange issued a waiver after a report by Macquarie.