devil's advocate, page-25

Found this seems like times have changed from a year ago...

NOTE: THIS COMMENT

So what has changed? he got it right the first time....
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Goodman's chief executive, Greg Goodman, said: "We were not going to wait around till April and May."

So, over Christmas, Mr Goodman and his team got to work to lock in fresh financing facilities.

"It is important to get it done and get it done early," he said.
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Standard & Poor's head of corporate ratings Craig Parker said: "They have obviously taken an active approach in forthcoming maturities."



Goodman Group's future secured

Florence Chong | February 01, 2008
Article from: The Australian

THE Goodman Group has swiftly arranged refinancing to distance itself from any contagion emanating from market upheavals.

It has arranged a four-year $800 million unsecured banking facility with the National Australia Bank and ANZ Bank to replace a $600 million facility maturing in May.

The strategy has worked.

Investors yesterday were relieved that the property grouphad locked in refinancing to cover its short-term debt obligations.

Their relief showed in the marketplace: the group outperformed the market with its shares rising almost 4.3 per cent. Following the collapse of Centro in December, the market panicked and penalised highly indebted stocks, including Goodman.

With the latest transaction, Goodman has refinanced $2.4billion of short-term debt in two weeks.

Last week, Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank underwrote a $1.6 billion facility for its wholesale fund, the $3.2 billion Goodman Australian Industrial Fund.

JP Morgan property analyst Richard Jones said: "It certainly takes the focus off the short-term financing issue that has plagued the stock."

Mr Jones said the next major tranche of $460 million as not due to mature until May next year. "They have existing facilities in place to absorb all the other maturities before then," said Goodman's head of corporate finance Nick Vondras.

"The market has been focusing on the $1.8 billion of debt maturing between April and May this year."

He said that with existing capacity, cash in hand, and expected cash to be generated from its operations, the group was now able to meet all its financial obligations for this year.

"We will continue to pursue avenues for expanding our headroom and capacity," said Mr Vondras, adding that the "most important milestone" was to secure its base financial position.

Goodman's chief executive, Greg Goodman, said: "We were not going to wait around till April and May."

So, over Christmas, Mr Goodman and his team got to work to lock in fresh financing facilities.

"It is important to get it done and get it done early," he said.

Standard & Poor's head of corporate ratings Craig Parker said: "They have obviously taken an active approach in forthcoming maturities."

Mr Parker said that, since late last year, Goodman had also raised $325 million in a hybrid issue in Australia and New Zealand as well as E500 million ($835million).

"In the long term, we will be looking at the Goodman Group to access the capital market to diversity their funding sources," he said.

JP Morgan's Mr Jones said that the group had extended its weighted average debt maturity from just over two years to about 3.5 years.

He added that with falling interest rates in Britain and Europe, Goodman's funding cost pressures were easing.

Mr Goodman said that the margin paid for the latest facility was "not materially higher than our average margin and does not materially impact on earnings".

He said the target was to reduce Goodman's gearing ratio from 41 per cent to the "mid-30s" over the next 12 months.

The group recycles between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in capital each year and warehouses assets in China, Britain and Australia for future trusts.