Speculation emerged today that ANZ Banking Group Ltd has revised the terms of winemaker Evans & Tate Ltd's balance sheet restructure because it failed to secure a third party co-investor to back its plan.
E&T placed its shares in a trading halt before the market began trading this morning and said it expected its shares to remain suspended from trading until Wednesday.
Also emerging today was speculation that former ERG Ltd chief executive Peter Fogarty had put a takeover proposal to E&T, offering to buy its shares for between 5 cents and 6 cents each.
It is understood E&T's board rejected the offer.
Mr Fogarty's Fogarty Wine Group owns Hunter Valley winery Lakes Folly, Margaret River's Deep Woods Estate and Millbrook Winery in Jarrahdale.
He is on business in Europe and could not be contacted for comment.
ANZ's $100 million debt-for-equity restructure, which would have given the bank more than a 60 per cent shareholding, valued E&T's stock at 11 cents per share.
It is understood that having been unable to gain a third-party co-investor, ANZ has returned to E&T with a revised offer that values E&T's shares at less than 10 cents, or more than 30 per cent below the 15 cents its shares last traded at.
A spokesman for E&T said he could not comment about matters related to E&T while it was in a trading halt.
Shareholders were due to vote on the proposed E&T restructure in July or August.
WA Business News understands one possible third party investor was Goldman Sachs JBWere's Trans-Tasman Private Equity Fund but the investment group has walked away from any deal.
While the E&T board is believed to be unhappy with the revised offer, it is caught between a rock and a hard place.
ANZ is E&T's major secured creditor and could opt to place the company into administration.
In March the board rejected a $148.3 million takeover proposal by US-based Yarraman Winery Inc.
A spokesman for Yarraman said today that the company was "watching with interest".
E&T convertible noteholders owed $20 million are due to vote whether to extend a waiver on a breach of their loan trust deed on June 29.
E&T told noteholders last week that it did not expect to be able to remedy the breach until it had completed the restructure deal with ANZ.
