Rubicon renews ANZ facilities, issues US$7M in notes to shareholder, board

Tuesday 19th May 2015

Rubicon, the forestry biotech company spun out of Fletcher Challenge, has extended its financing arrangements with ANZ Bank New Zealand and issued US$7 million in notes to its major shareholder David Knott and its board members.

The Auckland based company's existing US$20 million debt facility with ANZ has been pushed out a year to July 1 2016 on "essentially the same terms", it said in a statement. The extension allowed for Rubicon to issue up to US$10 million of unsecured debt notes, of which Knott took up US$5 million, while members of the board and management took up US$2 million. The company did not expect to issue the remaining US$3 million and the notes come due in January 2017.

"We are very pleased that we have secured Rubicon's funding through fiscal 2016, and we believe that this announcement today should remove any 'overhang' in our share price in that regard," chairman Steve Kasnet said. "Our focus remains solely on bringing value to our remaining Tenon and ArborGen investments. With this refinancing behind us, we can now do just that."

Rubicon owns two thirds of listed wood mouldings business Tenon, and said it is mulling floating ArborGen, after a failed attempt to list the biotech forestry company in 2011.

Shares of Rubicon last traded at 31 cents, although they have fallen some 74 percent since its peak of $1.21 in March 2011.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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