P.M. BRIEFING : MNC Financial Repays Debt

MNC Financial Inc. averted serious financial trouble today with the repayment of $646 million in debt. “We’ve met all debt obligations through today,” said bank spokeswoman Suzanne Chadwick. She declined to offer details on how the debt was repaid.

MNC Financial last week repaid $375 million in debt to a group of nine banks led by J. P. Morgan and Co., the Wall Street Journal reported today.

Most of the funds to repay the Morgan syndicate came from MNC’s recent $369-million sale of its consumer finance unit, Landmark Financial Services Inc., the newspaper said.

The remaining $271 million in variable rate notes was due today. The banking company needed to come up with more cash or credit to make the payment, but there was no immediate word on how this was done.