So it looks like within the last 12 months a syndicate of three...

So it looks like within the last 12 months a syndicate of three of the Big 4 banks has agreed with HIL to restructure a $110m unsecured debt facility to a $55m secured facility whilst they undertook a refinance of the facilities to another financier.

The result of the refinance today appears to be that the three bank syndicate has reduced to just CBA, and the secured syndicate reducing its exposure to a $15m secured facility ($5m repayable within 12 months and the residual $10m repayable in 18 months). Looks to me like a bank seeking to completely remove its exposure to a poor performing business (as evidenced by the trend decline in the SP since July 2014). Would be interesting to know what the amortisation schedule for the CBA facility looks like (I assume it wouldn't be a bullet repayment at maturity in 12 and 18 months time).

HIL has now largely refinanced to a, usually, more expensive form of asset based financing in debtor factoring ($36m facility) in which cash flow and earnings serviceability considerations are trumped by being more concerned about the recoverability of your debt in the event of default.

Will be interesting to see how things play out for HIL over the next 12-18 months (assuming they get that far).