Comvita’s creditors have agreed to support a recapitalisation process following the aborted takeover bid by fellow Manuka honey maker Florenz.
The New Zealand-headquartered business said today (12 December) it deems NZ$25m [$14.5m] will be required to “position the company appropriately”, although “no binding commitments” have yet been pledged.
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In the meantime, a syndicate of Comvita’s lenders have agreed to extend debt maturities coming due in January and March to the end of April, along with the “granting of further covenant waivers”.
Those repayment extensions will give Comvita leeway to “progress and execute its recapitalisation pathway”, the company said in a statement.
Comvita and Florenz mutually agreed to terminate the takeover process in November. The talks broke down after Comvita failed to get the required majority backing from its own shareholders.
Chair Bridget Coates said at the time the Comvita board would proceed to “advance alternative options, including a recapitalisation process”.
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By GlobalDataThe Florenz takeover had been approved by the board in August, when Coates described the challenges Comvita was facing.
“Recent years have been challenging for Comvita and its shareholders, with sustained sector pressures, softer market conditions and the demands of a complex turnaround weighing on performance,” she said.
“Comvita has faced ongoing pressure from structural changes in the Manuka honey sector, which continues to face oversupply, price and demand volatility, and intense competition, including online.”
The arrangement with creditors includes a proviso that Comvita meet a minimum EBIT threshold in the six months to 31 December, along with “staged [debt] facility reductions through to the end of March”, the company said today. It expects to meet both of those covenants.
Comvita did not disclose the stipulated EBIT requirement.
According to a trading update issued in October for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, Comvita had net debt of NZ$67.4m, while the company generated an EBIT profit of NZ$0.7m, better than an anticipated NZ$1.7m loss. It was also an improvement from the NZ$2.8m loss posted in the same quarter a year earlier.
The metric for the full year was forecast at NZ$13.5m.
Revenue for the first quarter was NZ$45.6m, above Comvita’s estimate of NZ$43.8m and the NZ$42.3m a year earlier.
In terms of potentially bringing in more capital, Comvita said today it is in talks with “several parties”, including existing shareholders and outside investors.
“The board and its advisers are assessing all options in line with the company’s obligations to consider the interests of all shareholders and the objectives shared between the company and its lending syndicate,” Comvita said in the statement.
It added the board will now be “focused on executing options that put the company in a sustainable financial position”.
