TSB Bank writes off $53.9 mln Solid Energy debt; Fitch affirms A- rating

TSB Bank writes off $53.9 mln Solid Energy debt; Fitch affirms A- rating
By Paul McBeth Feb. 27 (BusinessDesk) - TSB Bank, the Taranaki community-owned bank, has written off the remaining $53.9 million debt exposure it had to stricken state-owned coal miner Solid Energy as the prospects of getting repaid deteriorate. The lender was one of a group of lenders to Solid Energy who wrote off $75 million of the $369.7 million they were owed in exchange for preference shares when the coal miner was forced to go to its government shareholder for a bail-out when global coal prices slumped. The coal miner today said it...