17 February 2010

South Canterbury Finance Mystery

Has South Canterbury Finance got:
a) So much cash inflows from its portfolio of loans and advances that it has large amounts of cash to re-invest in more loans, or
b) So little cash inflows from its portfolio of loans and advances that it is trying to sell loans?

The answer is apparently both.

The company's prospectus states that over $1b is due and expected to be received from its loan book between 30 June 2009 and 31 Dec 2009. Yet the company is reported to be looking to sell its property loans:
Beleagured South Canterbury Finance is trying to sell hundreds of millions of dollars of its property loans to overseas investors as it clears the decks to raise capital.
The only way I can reconcile these two a strategies is that it is trying to dilute their impaired loans by making more loans that aren't impaired, and selling some impaired assets. I'm not sure how that makes the company's problems any smaller, but that is the only explanation I can offer.

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