Viterra’s Australian wing ABB Grain has been granted a waiver on a previously reported breach in its loan agreements.
Regina-based Viterra, Canada’s largest grain handler, reported Tuesday that it has been in talks with ABB’s syndicate of lenders since a financial report on ABB on Dec. 7 showed the Australian company to be “in breach of its loan covenants at Oct. 31, 2009.”
As a result of its discussions, Viterra said, it has “received a waiver in respect of the Oct. 31, 2009 breach.”
Viterra said it will publish its consolidated financial results on Jan. 21, 2010, including about five weeks’ worth of ABB results, as well as consolidation of ABB’s debt.
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“We have been working hard to implement changes in Australian operations to strengthen business processes and accountability for bottom line results,” Viterra’s chief financial officer Rex McLennan said in a release Tuesday.
“We are confident that our Australian operations will achieve significant earnings recovery in 2010 given the larger-than-average crop in the region, leadership changes in key positions, and a more disciplined, sharper focus on business execution to achieve its financial performance targets.”
Viterra also said it expects to announce a new leader for its Australia and New Zealand businesses “in the coming weeks.”
Since Sept. 23, Viterra said, it has been “actively integrating and rebranding the Australian business” including restructuring the grain operation into a “single pipeline” model, designing a new farm customer relationship program in the Australian agri-products business, and implementing “enhanced financial management processes to ensure financial administration and reporting practices in the southern hemisphere are aligned with our North American standards.”
