wednesday update, page-5

I think there will be plenty to talk about for some months Swap. As you say there is a lot left out of the announcements - what are the interest rates, what has happened to the Forex cover, what are the exact details of the hybrids. I guess we have to wait 2 1/2 months for the half yearly results.

My initial reaction was not great to the announcement but see it now as very positive (again without seeing the detail). It is effectively a 3 year refinancing of the debt, with $1bil of that debt interest capitalised.

It gives CNP plenty of opportunity to recapitalise - who knows what will happen - private equity, sale of properties etc. Someone said on HC at the start of the year put these in your back pocket for a few years and ignore them. They were right.

The CNP share price will be particularly hard to predict and pretty volatile over the next few months - but I do not think it will take off until some recapitalisation is put in place or there are some decent asset sales.

Patience may be required with this share, but if you think long term and if over the next 3 years Centro can pay down a lot of debt and the market starts to pick up, anyone who bought at 20c or lower could be looking at a pretty healthy gain 7 years down the track.