Strategic Finance loss widens

The finance company said the operating loss in the 12 months ended June 30 was about $98 million, while shareholders' funds amounted to about negative $25 million, Strategic said in a statement. In the first half, the net loss was $32.8 million.

"SFL, along with all participants in the property and finance sector, continues to be affected by the difficult economic climate," the statement from chief executive Kerry Finnigan said.

The company will make "significantly higher" levels of impairments, provisions and bad debt write-offs on loans in its full-year results.

The final determination on impairments is subject to a review by auditors KPMG, it said. The company doesn't expect to resume dividend payments on its perpetual shares and interest won't be paid on subordinated notes, with 85 cents in the dollar of principal to be repaid during the moratorium.