Britain's biggest cider maker, H.P. Bulmer Holdings Plc, has renegotiated its banking facilities to provide it with funding for the next 12 months.

The move helped reverse earlier sharp losses in the group's shares.

The maker of Strongbow and Scrumpy Jack ciders said the deal would meet its needs until November 2003, giving it enough cash to buy the apples it uses, but at a higher rate of interest.

Dublin-based C&C makes and distributes Bulmers cider in Ireland under licence from the British group.

Bulmer's banks and loan-note holders will have to give their consent for any future dividend payments and the firm said it did not expect to pay a preference share dividend in January.

Its shares rose 2.7 per cent to 92.8 pence sterling. The stock had earlier shed as much as 20 per cent after a newspaper reported Bulmer wanted to pay farmers only half of the agreed amount for a 70,000-tonne crop of apples.

Bulmer, which is still hunting for a new chief executive after Mr Mike Hughes quit in September, also said it had revised its accounts and cut reported 2001/02 net profits by 60 per cent or £1 million sterling (€1.56 million) to £654,000 as a result of additional costs that had come to light.