London, Aug 28 - Premier Foods Chief Executive Robert Schofield said he was comfortable with the group's debt despite it rising to over 1.8 billion pounds ($3.31 billion) at the end of June from 1.6 billion at the end of 2007.
"Are we comfortable with the level of debt? Clearly, we put that debt in place in a very different market but we've started to address that. All in all, we're comfortable with our position," he told reporters on a conference call on Thursday.
The group, which took on the bulk of its debt as a result of the acquisitions of RHM and Campbell's in 2007, renegotiated its banking facilities in March to give it "sufficient headroom" to pursue a restructuring programme.
Schofield said that restructuring, which involved shutting down nine factories, is now coming to an end and the cash demands associated with that will fall in the second half.
Shares in Premier Foods have underperformed the FTSE All Share Food Producers Index by 41 percent since the start of the year amid speculation the group could be forced into launching a rights issue to shore up its balance sheet.
However, Schofield insisted the group "remains comfortable" with its covenants and confirmed it met its covenant tests at June 28.