Using short term debt to pay off long term debt

[fallenangel22]

Hi everyone,

I am at Uni doing finance. Part of my assignment is to do financial analysis on a company in the asx. I have chosen Harvey Norman. Now I have been pouring over the fin statements and have discovered that Hvn has seemingly turned quite a large chunk of their long term debt into short term debtduring the fin year of 2008. Now why would they do that any ideas apart from the fact that short term interest rates have dropped and they get a better rate on short term than they have on the long despite the fact that they will have to pay it off in a year. PS. that also could be the case why their interest expense is actually in profit ie: they are making more on their interest revenue than they pay out in interest expense. I am coming to you guys with this because apart from my lecturer who has been hospitalised with swine flu all my class mates are chinese and can't speak english.

Thank you in advance

 

[Krusty the Klown]

Now why would they do that any ideas apart from the fact that short term interest rates have dropped and they get a better rate on short term than they have on the long despite the fact that they will have to pay it off in a year.

PS. that also could be the case why their interest expense is actually in profit ie: they are making more on their interest revenue than they pay out in interest expense.

Your assumptions might be correct, they could also refinance the short term facility when it is due instead of paying it out. They could also refinance back to a long term loan when interest rates start to rise.

A possible motive could be to free up cash flow during tough times.