A compensation fund for asbestos disease victims will receive a much needed cash injection after a legal victory by James Hardie.
The company has been refunded $369.8 million by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) after winning a long-running dispute in the High Court in February.
James Hardie said on Tuesday it would direct $132.3 million of that amount into the Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund (AICF) on April 2.
The fund was set up in 2006 to compensate sufferers of asbestos-related diseases.
The AICF relies on James Hardie contributing 35 per cent of its cash flow each year into the fund.
The downturn in the Australian and United States property markets has hampered the company’s results in recent years, and therefore reduced the AICF’s cash balance.
That led the federal and NSW governments to provide a $320 million loan facility to the AICF in late 2010, and the fund took a $29.7 million loan from that facility in February 2012.
The April contribution far outweighed the most recent contributions from James Hardie and would enable the AICF’s recent loan to be repaid, the company said.
“James Hardie believes that the early receipt of this contribution will be of considerable benefit to the AICF,” the company said in a statement.
The payment from James Hardie will also boost the AICF’s balance sheet to a level not reached for some years.
On February 17, the AICF had $86 million in funds and the April contribution will take that figure to $218.3 million.
However, that does not take into account settlements the fund would have made since January 1.
The fund paid out $73.9 million in compensation in the nine months to December 31, 2011, according to the most recent statistics provided by James Hardie.