Receivables bought by PRG

Pacific Retail Group has agreed to a new securitisation program covering $150 million of receivables.

Auckland-based Pacific Retail said its finance unit, Pacific Retail Services, will repurchase the receivables - payments owed to Pacific and not yet received - from Waratah Receivables Corp.

They will then be sold to PRS Trust No 1 under a new agreement with the trustee, New Zealand Guardian Trust, as part of a replacement securitisation program, the company said in a statement.

Securitisation is the process of pooling loans and converting them into packages of securities.

Pacific Retail has said it is considering floating its consumer finance business next year, selling shares in an initial public offering. The company, 81 per cent owned by Eric Watson, would retain a majority interest in the finance unit and list it on the stock exchange in the second quarter of 2005.

- BLOOMBERG