4th Nov 2014 12:35
LONDON (Alliance News) - Beacon Hill Resources PLC Tuesday said it has got agreement to further defer payments to Vitol SA, as it continues to try to restructure or refinance its senior debt facility whilst progressing its attempt to get a new debt facility for its Minas Moastize coal mine in Mozambique.
Beacon Hill shares were down 14.3% to 0.0900 pence per share Tuesday afternoon.
In August, Beacon Hill agreed with Vitol SA to defer all principal amortisation and accrued interest totalling USD1.7 million until September 30. Beacon Hill has now agreed with Vitol to further defer the payment and another due later this year.
The agreement will now defer the USD1.7 million payment and a USD2.4 million payment due in December to January 30, 2015. Beacon Hill is trying to finalise a restructuring or refinancing of the debt facility with Vitol before the due date at the end of January 2015, it said in a statement.
The total balance outstanding to Vitol, including interest, at the end of September totalled USD10.6 million.
Beacon Hill said the final legal due diligence report has been submitted to the South African Development Finance Institution in regards to securing funding for the Minas coal mine, and it expects final approval to be received by the year end. It said it had suffered delays due to requests from the institution for corporate records dating back to 2005.
In addition, Beacon Hill continues to negotiate with convertible loan note holders regarding a potential restructuring of USD14.8 million in loan notes currently due for redemption between July 2015 and July 2018.
The successful restructuring will be a key condition precedent to any drawdowns of any new senior facilities from the Development Finance Institution in 2015, it said in a statement.
"We are making steady progress in both our new project funding and restructuring and I remain optimistic we can deliver some resolution for our shareholders prior to the year-end," said Chief executive Rowan Karstel.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.