Punch Taverns says breaches debt covenant
April 15 (Reuters) - Troubled British pub company Punch Taverns Plc said it breached a debt covenant related to Punch A, one of its two securitisation vehicles, in the quarter ended March 1.
The debt-laden company's shares were down 5.7 percent at 12.98 pence on the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) at 1154 GMT on Tuesday.
Punch's debt structure is complex and split into two securitised vehicles. Punch A holds 1.45 billion pounds ($2.43 billion) of gross debt, while Punch B holds 884 million pounds.
The pub company had said earlier this month that it will convene a meeting on April 29 to seek covenant waivers from noteholders of the two securitisation vehicles. (http://link.reuters.com/ren58v)
The waivers are necessary to prevent a default in payment, which in the case of Punch A may be as early as May 15.
Punch, like many pub owners, was hit hard by Britain's double-dip recession and is trying to reduce 2.3 billion pounds ($3.85 billion) of debt built up before the downturn.
The company, which has about 4,000 pubs, said on Tuesday pretax profit rose to 50 million pounds in the 28 weeks ended March 1 from 26 million pounds a year earlier. Revenue fell 4 percent to 233.5 million pounds.
Like-for-like net income up 1.4 percent in its core estate. ($1 = 0.5976 British Pounds) (Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das (Shenzhen: 002421.SZ - news) )