Guinness Peat Group, the investment company founded by Ron Brierley which is selling off most of its assets and returning capital to shareholders, says it'll spend about NZ$78.58 million buying back capital notes ahead of their maturity date.
GPG says in a letter to noteholders it has decided to exercise an option to buy all the outstanding 2008 notes on issue on March 15 next year. It'll pay a price equal to the sum of the principal amount of each note plus all accrued interest and all unpaid interest, if any, up to the purchase date. That comes to NZ$78.580 million.
The 2008 notes were initially a 2003 issue with the notes still outstanding rolled over after some investors', holding NZ$138 million worth, chose in 2008 not to roll them over and had their notes repurchased and canceled by GPG. The 2008 notes still on issue weren't due to mature on December 15, 2013 (the election date) and are paying 9% per annum.
GPG said the record date for the buy back will be March 2, 2012.
The company also has a NZ$350 million capital note issue dating from 2006 on issue. Due to mature on November 15, 2012, these notes pay 8.3%.
What would happen to GPG's capital notes, overseen by trustee Guardian Trust, has been one of the issues pondered over the past year or so since the company revealed demerger plans. See more here.
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