Allied negotiates debt in Nationwide fall-out

Allied Farmer chief executive Rob Alloway. Photo / Dean Purcell

Allied Farmers, the embattled financier and rural services provider, will renegotiate the terms of its bank facility in the fall-out of its subsidiary, Allied Nationwide's, receivership.

The company, which took on the troubled Hanover finance company loan book at the end of last year, is in discussions with its lender Westpac and the lead manager of its rights issue after the collapse of its finance unit sparked the need for new negotiations over its restructuring initiative and debt retirement.

The firm has senior debt totalling $16.9 million, made up of a multi-credit facility of $14.4 million and an overdraft of $2.5 million.

On Monday, chairman John Loughlin stepped down from the board of Allied Farmers in the wake of the Nationwide receivership.

The finance unit owed about $130 million to some 4,500 investors, and was covered by the government's retail deposit guarantee.

The shares, which are regularly the most viewed stock on the NZX website, fell 3.6 per cent to 2.7 cents.