Metropolitan Glass & Glazing, or Metro GlassTech, with locations across New Zealand, has been taken over completely by its lenders, following a debt-to-equity swap.
New Zealand glazier Metropolitan Glass & Glazing, or Metro GlassTech, is now wholly owned by its lenders.
A consortium of senior lenders now own 60% of the company following a debt-to-equity swap worth around NZD 180 million (USD 146 million), while Australian private equity firm Crescent Capital Partners owns the remaining 40%.
Catalyst Investment Managers bought Metro GlassTech in July 2006 for around NZD 350 million from its founders, and, according to the Overseas Investment Office, Macquarie Investment Management owned 15.4% stake of Metro GlassTech.
The New Zealand Government’s Overseas Investment Office released a decision dated 27 January allowing for the creditors of Metro GlassTech, and its parent company, NZ Glass Holdings, to take control of both companies’ assets. According to the Overseas Investment Office, NZ Glass Holdings breached financial covenants in 2011 giving rise to certain rights for the company’s creditors. The company has since been placed into liquidation by KordaMentha.
In its financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2011 lodged 28 February this year, NZ Glass Holdings directors Andrew Bailey and Trent Peterson said a syndicate of investors had bought the company’s only asset – Metro GlassTech.
“The restructure of the company’s shareholdings and capital structure was necessitated by a continuation of the downturn in the residential new build market which has endured since mid-2008,” the directors said, describing the downturn as extreme, and compounded by the series of earthquakes in the Christchurch region.
Bailey and Peterson, have since resigned, adding they expect the company to continue to operate in a challenging environment in the medium term, with debt levels more appropriate for market conditions.
“The board is confident that Metro GlassTech is well positioned to recover in-line with an improvement in the residential building market in due course, as well as the rebuild of the Christchurch region,” they said.
For the year to 31 March 2011, the business recorded a loss of NZD 200 million, four times worse than its NZD 48 million loss the year prior. The company had net liabilities of NZD 126.4 million compared to net assets of NZD 74.5 million the previous year.