NEWS
19 May 2020
Tabcorp secures debt waiver to mitigate COVID-19 impact
By Owain Flanders

The agreement falls under the operator’s syndicated facility agreement, representing facilities of AU$2.2bn (US$1.44bn).

As part of this agreement, Tabcorp has confirmed it will not pay a final dividend this year.

The operator has announced it is in “advanced discussions” with its US private placement holders to obtain changes to existing covenants to provide additional flexibility during the pandemic.

As of 15 May, Tabcorp had $820m of available liquidity.

“We welcome the support of our syndicate banks during this challenging period,” commented David Attenborough, CEO and managing director of Tabcorp.

“The waivers complement recent actions we have taken to preserve our liquidity and mitigate the financial and earnings impacts of COVID-19.

“Tabcorp continues to work proactively and collaboratively with all our stakeholders to emerge from the COVID-19 period as strongly as possible.”

The operator has reduced its staff numbers by 700 to further mitigate the effects of the pandemic, in addition to cutting the hours of remaining staff to four days a week.

Payments of payroll, keno and lotteries taxes have also been deferred for six months.