Greenstone Energy mulls $100m bond sale

Tuesday 13th July 2010

Greenstone Energy, the relatively new owners of Shell’s New Zealand retail and distribution assets, is considering a retail bond issue to raise as much as $100 million.

The Infratil/NZ Super Fund-owned Greenstone took over Shell’s 230 service stations, 95 truckstops, a fuel storage network and distribution infrastructure, a 17% shareholding in the NZ Refining Company and a 25% shareholding in Loyalty New Zealand in April this year.

Its chief executive, Mike Bennetts, confirmed market speculation that such a capital raising may be in the wind.

“Documentation on a bond issue was currently being developed,” Bennetts said.

“While a final decision had yet to be taken, any bonds would likely mature from 2016 onwards.”

Any issue would be of secured bonds with bondholders sharing the same equal security ranking as Greenstone’s banks he said. The issue would be used to repay bank debt, with a final decision likely to be made by the end of July, at which time all documentation would be finalised.

Businesswire.co.nz

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