Tranz Rail waits for D-Day

Friday 5th April 2002

Major sharebroking houses rate the shares a "buy" and institutional investors have taken big stakes.

But Tranz Rail's major shareholders have bailed out and credit-rating agency Moody's has signalled another downgrade, saying the company is in a critical period.

What's going on with the former state railway operator?

The National Business Review's Shoeshine columnist this week scrutinises the books and finds a worrying cocktail of overvalued assets and shrinking profits.

Since a Fay Richwhite-led consortium bought the railway from the government in 1993, more than $800 million has been poured into the track network, quadrupling its value.

But years of restructuring haven't restored core earnings and the company isn't covering its cost of capital.

A day of reckoning looms on October 15 when a $250 million bank debt facility falls due.

Shoeshine

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