bnb is down due to bbp, page-34

Article in SMH stating BNB will give BPP the money. Sounds ok to me.
Babcock & Brown is prepared to help Babcock & Brown Power with funding if Australia's biggest publicly traded electricity producer fails to secure additional debt financing from banks.

Babcock is willing to provide assistance if necessary to protect the value of Babcock Power's assets, Phil Green, chief executive officer of Australia's second-biggest investment bank, said today.

Babcock Power shares plunged 21% to a record low of $1.18 yesterday after the company said it needed more money, and following delays in completing the refinancing of $3.1 billion of debt. Chief executive Paul Simshauser said in December that the utility wanted to complete arrangements for debt refinancing by March.

"If Babcock & Brown needs to provide a small amount of bridging help, or whatever, it will be prepared to look at how that best works,'' Mr Green said. "We don't think it'll be material amounts of money and we're in a position to be flexible.''

Babcock Power may refinance $2.7 billion of debt in the "next few weeks'' and has received final credit approval from nine of the 11 banks participating in the lending plan, the company said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange yesterday. It may borrow the remaining $360 million by August, it added, and might have to sell some assets and borrow more to raise an additional $300 million by mid-2009 to expand capacity at the Tamar and Newman power stations.

"We don't think there'll be any material amount needed,'' Mr Green said. "The Power fund has significant assets of value that are highly sought after to deal with what is in relative terms a very small shortfall.''