MELBOURNE: The books are looking a little better at troubled listed group Mercury Brands.
The Melbourne-based wholesale and licensing group has agreed to a payment of $575,000 and 9.3 million in share options to settle debt with investment trust group Brascan Unit.
Mercury Brands chairman Michael Abela said the agreement, payable by September 5, completed the restructure of the balance sheet, with the group now owing less than $3 million in secured loans.
The apparel group posted a $7.8 million loss in fiscal 2008.
Abela said the group was "highly focussed" on raising capital and the restructure was an important step to achieving this.
In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, Mercury Brands managing director Phillip Thomas said the group had been successful in fine tuning its business and had reduced costs by at least $3 to $4 million over the past two months.
He said sales were well ahead of this time last year with orders in hand for 50 per cent of the budget before the summer 2009/10 season commenced in July.
Mercury brands labels include Rochford, Kangol, Lifetime Collection and Black Orchid.