Wincanton, the Chippenham-based logistics group which recorded a £75.5m first half loss, has refinanced its debt through a £185m bank facility and a £75m term facility.
The new arrangements follow completion of the sale of its remaining loss-making European operations to German company Rhenus. The sale to Rhenus was announced last summer following the disposal of Wincanton's German road activities and businesses in central and eastern Europe to the Raben group and its logistics operations in Holland to JCL Transport und Logistik.
The £185m bank facility, which has a maturity date of November 2015, is being provided by Barclays, HSBC, RBS, WestLB and AIB. The £75m term facility is with M&G UK Companies Financing Fund and has a maturity date in November 2021.
Wincanton chief executive Eric Born said: "This is an important step in the overall repositioning of the group following the withdrawal from Europe. It ensures that Wincanton has facilities in place with a maturity profile that allows the company to focus on delivering profitable growth in the solid UK and Ireland business and to generate positive cashflow in the future."
In November the group renewed its warehousing and distribution contracts with food giant Heinz, maintaining its position as one of the global brand’s Golden Circle of preferred suppliers. It has transported around 92m cases of Heinz products a year for the past 15 years and the new contract is until 2015 while also extending a warehousing agreement for the next four years and also means Wincanton’s order management team will handle customer orders across all temperature ranges for Heinz.
Its shares rose 4p or 6% to 70p this morning.
