Haoma produced and sold nearly one kilo of gold during the March quarter, and a smaller amount of silver, for the total sum of $52,372.

It was such an outstanding result that Haoma immediately thought about addressing the $64 million debt and interest bill owed to Morgan – who is its chairman, largest shareholder, and sole funder of its loss-making operations.

To give you an idea of just how big a deal Haoma's announcement is, Morgan's polling shop, The Roy Morgan Research Centre – which has being paying the bills – agreed to retrospectively slash its loan rate from a 4 per cent margin above the 30-day commercial bill rate, to a 1 per cent margin.

It was also agreed that no debt repayments will be required until Haoma's annualised earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) exceeds $15 million a year.

And that's not all, debt repayments will not exceed 50 per cent of Haoma's EBITDA in a year, said the company.

Given the company's financial performance so far has yielded $120 million of losses, this is obviously not of immediate concern to other Haoma investors.

But given Morgan is currently owed $64 million by a company with a market value of less than $42 million, CBD was pleased to see that gold still holds its lustre for our pollster.

Haoma said its board is considering a capital restructure that could see shares issued to Roy Morgan "to exchange debt for equity".

That is pretty ballsy call, given Morgan already owns around 60 per cent of Haoma's shares. 

My oath

It was a tough day at the office as Westpac's Brian Hartzer tried to sell its bad debt-blighted first-half results to the market.

Hartzer was then asked about one of the initiatives being promoted to clear up the banking sector's rather poor image: The Banking and Finance Oath.

"We've been on the record that we absolutely support the notion that the community has a right to expect high standards of behaviour from banks and from bankers. The question of whether one goes down a particular PR initiative is another question, but we certainly have no objection to the points that are in that," he told an analyst call.

PR initiative? So, nothing of substance then Brian?

Hartzer later explained that he had no objection to the oath, which he thinks is a "good initiative". But he was reluctant to make a big deal out of signing a series of commitments that he followed any way.

May day

The first trading day of May proved to be a redemptory one for some of our high-profile stragglers.

Litigation disaster zone, Andrew Grech's Slater & Gordon, lived to fight another day after caving in to its bank creditors. This includes paying every spare cent towards the $840 million debt pile due to be repaid between May 2018 and 2019.

On top of extra homework – which involves extra reporting to its bankers until the loans are repaid – the creditors get multimillion-dollar bonuses in cash and shares if the company does manage to work its way out of this mess and prosper.

The stock nearly doubled on Monday, but it is still a tiny fraction of its $6.75 year high.

In the words of the law firm's management, it considers the actions a "positive and clear endorsement" of the company's new strategy. We assume this means not anything as crazy as acquiring a controversial British business for $1.3 billion without competent due diligence.

Mind you, greatness is still within reach if you believe the words of Quindell's controversial founder Rob Terry: "I feel sorry for Slater & Gordon for some of the hassle that they've had with the business. I still feel they got a bargain when they bought it," he told Britain's  The Telegraph last week.  

UpHill Battle

Slater was not the only straggler to survive some perilous negotiations in April. Ted Pretty's former employer, Hills Ltd, also lives to fight another day after it managed to secure new debt funding from its lenders. Which means that the $38.5 million it owes is no longer classified as a current liability.

As CBD has mentioned before, the bank has ensured the debt is now secured, which means we know who is at the front of the queue if its tech strategy does go belly up.

And then there is the little straggler that almost made the cut.

Mark Rowsthorn's logistics disaster, McAleese, said it is hoping to have a binding agreement by Friday – whereby its current financiers will sell their debt to SC Lowy, which will get a haircut on that debt "by way of compromise".

Westpac's Brain Hartzer reported on the cost of the compromise for his bank on Monday. Westpac's disappointing result was blamed on four customers. McAleese and Slater & Gordon were two of them.

Got a tip? ckruger@fairfaxmedia.com.au