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"I don’t think we have a problem. Our underlying business is no different. The only thing is our share price has moved" |
The chief executive of Babcock & Brown, Australia’s newest and fastest-growing investment bank, was preparing to announce a 53% increase in interim group net profit year on year, with 44% growth in earnings per share. B&B’s landmark bid for the Alinta energy group, in partnership with Singapore Power, was on its way to completion; the share price was flying high at almost A$35. What a difference a year makes. On June 13 this year, the share price hit a low of A$4.70 – a more than 80% drop since last July. Investors have fled over concerns about the bank’s debt load, and when their flight breached a threshold in market capitalization, a covenant was triggered allowing a consortium of lending banks to review a A$2.8 billion ($2.67 billion) debt facility (which, in turn, set off further share price falls). Since then, the bank has suspended distributions in some of its listed infrastructure funds, spurring further alarm.
