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It's now or never for Silver Chef recapitalisation

24 September 2019 3:43PM
With only days remaining before its lenders put Silver Chef into administration, the finance company's directors have come up with what they hope will be a recapitalisation plan that gets over the line.The company announced yesterday that it had received a proposal from the Next Capital consortium to buy its hospitality finance business for A$18 million.This is the third proposal put up by the Next Capital consortium since July. The two previous deals - a full takeover and an offer to acquire assets - were knocked back by shareholders.The latest proposal has the support of Silver Chef's major shareholders, including entities involved with founder Allan English and fund manager Blue Stamp Co.If the deal goes ahead Silver Chef will be left with the $18 million cash proceeds and cash flows attributable to the run-off of its equipment finance business GoGetta. These would be offset by transaction costs and wind down costs.The transaction would also make Silver Chef debt free.The company has entered into an exclusivity deed with Next Capital until 1 December.The company remains in default of its banking obligations, with less than seven days to reach agreement with its lending syndicate - Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and HSBC - on a debt restructure.It had been pursuing a $60 million recapitalisation on terms proposed by Blue Stamp but the negotiations failed to achieve a result that was acceptable to all shareholders.The board said it was backing the Next Capital proposal on the basis that value can be gained for all shareholders.Silver Chef is in breach of its debt covenants and has waivers in relation to both its syndicated debt facility and its securitisation warehouse facility, allowing it to raise capital.It has been operating with the waivers since July last year and has been looking for a $45 million capital injection.The company's problems go back to its decisions, early last year, to get out of its GoGetta business, which was not making an acceptable return and was also in trouble with the regulator. Write-downs of expected returns from GoGetta and an increase in provisions tipped the company into loss in 2017/18 and the six months to December.Those write-downs also caused the company to breach its financial covenants.Meanwhile the company's business operations are deteriorating. Conditions imposed with the waivers mean that it is only able to originate from available cashflow. This has "significantly reduced the near-term financial outlook for the company and reduced the effectiveness of the proposed capital management plan."

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