Meat processing firm Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN) Tuesday said the recent capital restructuring resulted in its netting over $1.7 billion in liquidity as of March 28, providing financial flexibility for settling over $1.8 billion in near-term debt maturities.
The company said that last September it began capital restructuring by issuing 22.4 million Class A Common Shares and $458 million in Senior Convertible Notes. This March, Tyson successfully closed high yield bond offering of $810 million and replaced its earlier revolving credit facility with a $1 billion asset-based lending facility.
Dennis Leatherby, Tyson's chief financial officer, said that despite volatile commodity markets, the company managed to reduce its debt load. Leatherby added, "Our net debt at the end of our second quarter was $2.6 billion, compared to a high of nearly $5 billion in 2001."
Tyson announced earlier that its chicken, beef, pork and prepared foods segments were profitable. With the chicken segment making considerable improvement due to sales volume, product mix, shorter-term contracts with customers and operational efficiencies, Leatherby expects its chicken business to experience a stronger third quarter than as anticipated in early May.
TSN closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $12.59, down 8 cents.
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