Category: SPAusNet
SPAusNet – BT
SP AusNet prices bond at 160 bps
(SYDNEY) Australian energy firm SP AusNet, part owned by Singapore Power, has priced A$300 million (S$384.7 million) of 7.5-year notes at 160 basis points over swap to refinance debt, it said yesterday.
The offer, launched as a A$200 million size deal but capped at A$300 million, paid a slightly lower margin than initially expected at around 165 bps.
The issue completes SP AusNet’s refinancing requirement of A$960 million to 2011, Geoff Nicholson, SP AusNet’s chief financial officer said in a statement.
ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Institutional Bank jointly led the issue, and sold the bonds in Australia and offshore.
This is the second only- bond issue this year from a non-financial borrower in Australia, and follows a sale by toll road operator Transurban earlier this week .
Bond issues from non- financial borrowers are rare in Australia, and investors are relishing the prospect that non-financial borrowers might issue bonds in a market dominated by bank issuers.
Only 3.5 per cent of Australian-dollar bond issuance last year came from non-financial firms, or corporates, according to ADCM data.
Property developer Mirvac Group Ltd is expected to price a five-year bond issue this week. — Reuters
SPAusNet – The Australian
SP AusNet boss’s pay leaps 60pc as profit plunges
SINGAPORE-BACKED SP AusNet has defended a 60 per cent jump in annual remuneration for its managing director despite a fall in the company’s security price and profit over 2008-09.
Stapled security holders gathered yesterday for the company’s annual general meeting in Melbourne to vote on its remuneration report and other resolutions and to hear a yearly update from its key executives.
SP AusNet remuneration committee chairman George Lefroy told the meeting he was aware of investor concerns about the plan to increase managing director Nino Ficcau’s annual pay.
“I would like to acknowledge security holder and community concern and interest in executive remuneration particularly in these challenging times,” Dr Lefroy said.
There was an outcry in May when SP AusNet, which is backed by Singapore Power and runs Victoria’s high-voltage electricity transmission network, said it would award Mr Ficca a $412,461 cash bonus, despite the utility posting a 6.7 per cent dip in its net profit for this financial year.
Dr Lefroy told shareholders yesterday Mr Ficca had been rewarded for “operational excellence” and the role he played in developing business strategy and “guiding and driving specified business outcomes”.
Mr Ficca’s total reportable remuneration for 2008-09 had risen by 60 per cent to $2.4 million, from $1.5m last financial year, he said. “The key reason for this increase is the long-term incentive plan,” Dr Lefroy said.
He stressed that the reportable remuneration was not the same as take-home pay because it included accounting valuations for current and historical equity grants that may or may not materialise.
The managing director’s remuneration package included fixed remuneration of $802,000 an on-target short-term incentive of $401,000 in cash, and a maximum long-term incentive payment of about $750,000, which he must convert on-market into securities.
Dr Lefroy he said a review in May last year showed a correction was needed in directors’ fees and the salaries of the managing director and other executives, for it to remain competitive.
The remuneration jump for Mr Ficca comes despite the company’s stapled securities price falling to 88.6c at the end of its March year, from $1.20 a year previously. SP AusNet shares fell 0.5c yesterday to 77c. Despite the protests, security holders later voted in favour of the company’s remuneration report.
Mr Ficca told the meeting his company report card for the year had included a number of positive achievements.
The net profit result, the connection of 26,400 new customers, the refurbishment and upgrade of key transmission stations and a high level of customer satisfaction were among the year’s highlights, he said.
SP AusNet’s power infrastructure was affected by the fatal Victorian bushfires earlier this year. Some Kinglake residents affected by the fires have launched a class action against SP AusNet, alleging faulty power lines started some of the blazes. The firm is defending the claim.
SPAusNet – BT
Company’s full-year income down 6.7% to A$147m
(MELBOURNE) SP AusNet, the Australian electricity distributor 51 per cent owned by Singapore Power Ltd, is seeking A$415 million (S$462.6 million) from a share sale to strengthen its power and gas supply network in Victoria state.
Investors will be offered one share for every four they own at 78 Australian cents, the Melbourne- based company said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange yesterday. That’s 13 per cent below the last traded price of 90 Australian cents.
Capital spending is projected to rise 18 per cent in the year ending March 31, 2010 because of increased energy demand in Australia’s second-largest city, SP AusNet said.
It joins Santos Ltd in seeking funds from investors. The nation’s third-biggest oil and gas producer said on Monday it was raising as much as A$3 billion in a share sale.
‘The capital raising is well in excess of our expectations,’ Credit Suisse Group analysts led by Sandra McCullagh said in a note yesterday. ‘We had assumed that SP AusNet could cut distributions over the next five years to fund growth capex whilst maintaining it’s A-minus credit rating,’ said Sydney-based Ms McCullagh, who rates the stock ‘outperform’.
SP AusNet has dropped 5.3 per cent since the start of the year, compared with a 2.3 per cent decline in the exchange’s utilities index.
Of the share offer, A$330 million for sale to institutional investors is fully underwritten by Macquarie Group Ltd and UBS AG, SP AusNet said, with a further A$85 million available to retail investors. Singapore Power intends to take up its full entitlement of A$211 million.
Funds will also be used to support its A-range credit rating, SP AusNet said.
‘By strengthening our balance sheet and providing a prudent funding flexibility, these capital management initiatives will complement SP AusNet’s existing ability to deliver sustainable growth in security holder value,’ SP AusNet managing director Nino Ficca said. The recession hasn’t caused a slowdown in new customer connections, chief financial officer Geoff Nicholson said.
Full-year net income fell 6.7 per cent to A$146.9 million in the 12 months ended March 31, SP AusNet said separately yesterday. SP AusNet took a A$30.3 million after-tax charge after the writedown of meters to be replaced in Victoria.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 9.5 per cent to A$709.6 million.
SP AusNet declared a final distribution of 5.927 Australian cents, bringing the total for the year to 11.854 cents. Distributions in the 12 months to March 31, 2010 are expected to be eight Australian cents per security, SP AusNet said.
SPAusNet – BT
SP AusNet update on bushfire damage
SP AUSNET, the Australian power distributor which is part of the Singapore Power Group, yesterday said that damage from the severe bushfire crisis experienced in the state of Victoria in February is lower than originally expected.
The company also said in a filing with the Singapore Exchange that there has been no material impact on previous earnings guidance for the year ended March 31, 2009, as a result of the fires.
‘SP AusNet has now been able to access all fire-affected areas to assess the scale of damage to its electricity distribution network and is pleased to advise that the damage is lower than originally expected, with less than one per cent of these assets being damaged by the fires,’ the company said.
The electricity firm is also facing a lawsuit from Australian wildfire survivors, who have launched a class action lawsuit alleging that a downed power line set off a fire that killed at least 100 people.
With regard to these legal proceedings, SP AusNet said yesterday that on April 16, 2009, it was served with the writ previously filed in the Supreme Court of Victoria, which alleges that ‘faulty and/or defective power lines’ caused loss and damage.
SP AusNet believes the claim is ‘both premature and inappropriate’, and intends to vigorously defend the claim. As it has previously stated, the firm intends to give its full support and assistance to the Royal Commission of Inquiry, which is set to commence public hearings on May 11.