Australian racing and wagering giant Tabcorp says it has boosted its available liquidity for navigating the COVID-19 pandemic by more than AU$70 million after securing a waiver on debt covenants in return for not paying a final dividend for FY20.
Providing an update to its COVID-19 response, Tabcorp said it has now secured agreement from its bank lenders under its Syndicated Facility Agreement for a waiver of leverage and interest cover covenants in relation to the next two testing dates on 30 June 2020 and 31 December 2020. As part of securing the waivers under the SFA, Tabcorp has resolved not to pay a final dividend in FY20.
The company said it is also in advanced discussions with its US Private Placement holders, which represent fully hedged debt equivalent to AU$2.1 billion, to obtain changes to existing covenants and provide additional flexibility.
Tabcorp revealed it now has available liquidity of AU$820 million compared with AU$749 million in early April, with no debt maturities until April 2022 other than the US Private Placement of AU$171.5 million currently being negotiated, which matures in December 2020.
“We welcome the support of our syndicate banks during this challenging period,” said Tabcorp Managing Director and CEO, David Attenborough. “The waivers complement recent actions we have taken to preserve our liquidity and mitigate the financial and earnings impacts of COVID-19.
“Tabcorp continues to work proactively and collaboratively with all our stakeholders to emerge from the COVID-19 period as strongly as possible.”
