UTILITY COMPANY NTR announced at its agm yesterday that its Irish waste management business Greenstar has succeeded in refinancing a €120 million debt facility.

A consortium of seven Irish and international banks will provide the facility, which matures in September 2012. Speaking to reporters after the agm yesterday, NTR chief executive Jim Barry said that Greenstar’s margins on the facility have increased as a result of the refinancing, and they will also pay more in fees.

However, Mr Barry believes that there will be consolidation in the Irish waste management industry over the coming year due to the level of fall-off in business, and that there is “greater value” in having “firepower” in the form of greater liquidity going into this period of restructuring.

When asked whether Greenstar will use the refinanced facilities to make an acquisition, Mr Barry said he couldn’t comment on this specifically but he said that the company now “has the ability to take action when it sees opportunities”.

He also said that a stock market listing is not on the agenda for NTR at the moment.

NTR shares are not currently listed on any stock exchange, but can be traded through the company’s stockbrokers.

The company has no “philosophical” objections to listing on a stock market, he said. However, a listing would bring a requirement to set expectations on a regular basis and to meet those expectations, and at the moment NTR’s portfolio is not suited to this, he explained. It is more likely that a subsidiary of NTR would be listed on an exchange rather than the company itself.

There is nothing imminent, he said, but a listing at a subsidiary level could be “part of the story as we move out into the future”, he said.

A final dividend of 4.94 cent per cent was agreed at yesterday’s agm. Dividends will be flat for the next three years, as previously agreed with shareholders.