JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold explorer St Barbara has repurchased an additional $10-million in aggregate principal of its 144A senior secured notes, at a discount of 7% to par value.
Settlement was expected to occur by September 30.
The Sydney-listed group would pay interest accrued on the repurchased notes for the period since interest was last paid in mid-April up to the date of repurchase.
Net payments were expected to amount to around A$14-million, comprising discounted principal repayments and accrued interest.
The note buy-back would be funded from US dollar cash reserves generated from US dollar gold sales. St Barbara’s aggregate cash balance prior to the repurchase exceeded A$130-million.
St Barbara had now bought back $67-million, or 27%, in aggregate of the original $250-million of notes issued in March 2013.
The notes had a coupon rate of 8.87% a year and a maturity date of April 2018.
The group added in a statement that the first of eight $9-million quarterly repayments of the Red Kite debt facility would also be completed during the September quarter, leaving a balance of $66-million on this facility at
the end of the quarter.
"We will continue to reduce debt with surplus cash as the opportunity arises, as we consider that reducing our debt is the best use of excess cash reserves,” commented MD and CEO Bob Vassie.