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Geneva set to breach bank covenants

Thursday 16th of October 2008

The company will take a one-time provision against its so-called old ledger, which is loans to people with lower credit quality, of $6.3 million in the year ending March 31. As a result, it will post a loss of $4.4 million, compared to the $2.7 million envisaged in its capital reconstruction offer document.

Geneva's banker is BOS International, a unit of the UK's HBOS, which is about to have the British government as a shareholder. A spokesman for BOS in New Zealand declined to comment and a spokesman in Perth couldn't immediately be reached.

Borrowers on the old ledger had been squeezed by rising food and petrol prices, eating into their disposable incomes and increasing defaults, Geneva said. At the same time the global credit squeeze had driven up costs and reduced availability of funds.

"Over the last six months there has been an unprecedented upheaval in the world and the New Zealand economy," Geneva said in a statement. "These events and the related credit impact have had a significant impact on the collectability of the old ledger."

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