Almost two weeks ago Solid deferred releasing its half year accounts. A key “issue” was that the coking coal market was deemed unlikely to improve enough to allow Solid to repay an estimated $NZ300 million ($A286 million) of debt due to the banking syndicate in the first week of September, 2016.
“We are acting early,” acting chairman Andy Coupe said at the time.
With Solid last flagging more job cuts at its flagship Stockton coal mine in January, Coupe confirmed that job losses were “inevitable” to Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee yesterday.
He also said that gains associated with a 30% reduction in operational and head office costs over the last 18 months, plus those coming from the weakening New Zealand dollar, were both negated by the continuing decline in coking coal prices.
“To frame the pricing issue we face, the current spot price for premium hard coking coal is $US103 a tonne versus an average of $160 in 2013, the year the company entered this arrangement with its lenders,” Coupe said.
“When Solid Energy attended the Commerce Committee a year ago, the comparable price was $119 a tonne, so it’s declined in the last year by around 14% in that 12 months.”
He told the committee that Solid was looking at another significant loss for the year ending June 30.
“The extent of that loss will depend on the outcome of operational and financial initiatives that are still to be completed, and because these discussions with the banks in particular are critical, incomplete and commercially sensitive, I hope members will agree that it would be unhelpful to Solid Energy for me to comment further,” he said.
New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English publicly questioned Solid’s economic viability recently and while Coupe said there were no immediate cash flow difficulties, he conceded there had been little headway on the debt front.
“As the balance sheet is structured now, it is increasingly likely Solid Energy will be unable to agree a refinancing of its debt when the current agreement with the bank lenders ends in September 2016 and other lending with maturities beyond that date,” he told the committee.
“With this in mind, the board and management have begun discussions with the lenders and the Crown.”
He said there were a number of paths which might be taken, but downplayed the prospect of the New Zealand government injecting any more funds.
“We have no expectation of any further financial support from the Crown. We are acting with urgency,” Coupe said.
“Management is keeping staff members, main contractors and customers informed and when there is something concrete decided, we will be making further announcements.”
The consortium of lenders which saved Solid in 2013 comprised ANZ, Bank of Tokyo, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac and local bank TSB.
TSB, a Taranaki community-owned bank, notably wrote off its remaining $53.9 million of Solid debt in late February.
According to Fairfax Media on Monday, English said the banks had the largest economic interest in Solid now.
"The Crown has been pretty keen to make sure that it's not in the position of offsetting the risk that the banks took,” he said.
“The banks took a risk lending the company money and they've got to deal with the consequences of those decisions.”
