Henderson, Nevada, Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- AgriBioTech Inc.,
a money-losing forage and turf-seed producer, said it signed a
commitment letter with GE Capital for $115 million in revolving
credit and a five-year term loan of up to $20 million.
The loan would replace AgriBioTech's existing $100 million
revolving credit from Bank of America and other lenders. The new
loan, which GE Capital would syndicate, is still contingent on
AgriBioTech coming up with another $5 million in unsecured debt.
It would be secured by substantially all of AgriBioTech's assets.
The company, which didn't say where it would get the additional
$5 million, said it hopes to close on the loan by early December.
AgriBioTech borrowed $3 million from its officers, securing
the loan with its own real estate, earlier this year. The company
has had a difficult time integrating 34 acquisitions it made
since 1993 when it was founded.
AgriBioTech's shares rose 5/16 to 3 1/4 in late trading.
Terms of the loans won't be disclosed until GE finds
participants for the lending syndicate, said an AgriBioTech
spokesman, Howard Kalt. The amount of the five-year loan would be
determined by an appraisal on AgriBioTech's real estate, plant
and equipment.
AgriBioTech has warned investors that, without new
financing, it might not be able to meet loan payments of $12
million a year. As of June 30, the company had working capital of
$1.5 million, compared with $7.56 million a year earlier.
The company reported it lost $49.76 million for its fiscal
year, which ended June 30, compared with net income of $387,000
in fiscal 1998. It has yet to report its first quarter, which
ended Sept. 30, but warned investors earlier this month that it
would probably lose money in that quarter.
The company's stock has fallen 75 percent since the
beginning of the year and that has had an effect on one of its
acquisitions.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing
Wednesday, the company said that it would issue an additional
200,000 shares of its stock to Thomas K. Hodges and Halina K.
Hodges, former owners of HybriGene, a biotechnology company
AgriBioTech acquired in January for $11.4 million in stock and
$100,000 in cash.
AgriBioTech was obligated to issue additional shares to the
Hodgeses because of the decline in the value of the stock.
¸1999 Bloomberg L.P.
regards |
