Halcyon completes US$413m refinancing

HALCYON Agri on Wednesday said it has successfully completed a refinancing of up to US$413 million, replacing existing debts with a mix of term loan and working capital facilities.

The natural rubber supply chain manager said the new facilities received "strong support" from its financing partners.

This long-term financing was secured to replace temporary facilities used for its acquisition of Anson Company from Lee Rubber for S$450 million, announced last July.

Anson is a Singapore-based company that owns and operates nine crumb rubber factories in South Sumatra, North Sumatra, Jambi and West Kalimantan. They produce Standard Indonesian Rubber for leading global tyre producers.

The US$388 million facility is a three-year committed financing package comprising amortisable term loan facilities of up to US$188 million and working capital facilities in line with the increased scope and scale of the group's operations, totalling US$200 million.

ABN Amro, Credit Suisse and DBS were the lead arrangers and bookrunners for the facilities of up to US$388 million, while EFA group, representing LH Asian Trade Finance Fund, took care of facilities of up to US$25 million.

Proceeds of the financing will be used to retire existing debts and provide ongoing working capital for operations, Halcyon Agri said.

Executive chairman and CEO Robert Meyer said: "With the integration of our businesses substantially complete, our transfer to the SGX-ST mainboard done and long-term financing in place, we are well positioned to move forward to the next phase of our development."